Recent discoveries in astronomy and relativistic astrophysics as well as experiments on particle and nuclear physics have blurred the traditional boundaries of physics. It is believed that at the birth of the Universe, a whirlwind of matter and antimatter, of quarks and exotic leptons, briefly appeared and merged into a sea of energy. The new phenomena and new states of matter in the Universe revealed the deep connection between quarks and the Cosmos. Motivated by these themes, this book discusses different topics: gravitational waves, dark matter, dark energy, exotic contents of compact stars, high-energy and gamma-ray astrophysics, heavy ion collisions and the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in the early Universe. The book presents some of the latest researches on these fascinating themes and is useful for experts and students in the field.

The second set of The Encyclopedia of Cosmology, in three volumes, continues this major, long-lasting, seminal reference at the graduate student level laid out by the most prominent researchers in the general field of cosmology. Together, these volumes will be a comprehensive review of the most important current topics in cosmology, discussing the important concepts and current status in each field, covering both theory and observation.These three volumes are edited by Dr Giovanni Fazio from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, with each volume authored or edited by specialists in the area: Modified Gravity by Claudia de Rham and Andrew Tolley (Imperial College), Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics edited by Floyd Stecker (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center), Black Holes edited by Zoltan Haiman (Columbia University). These volumes follow the earlier publication in 2020 of The Encyclopedia of Cosmology, which comprises the following four volumes: Galaxy Formation and Evolution by Rennan Barkana (Tel Aviv University), Numerical Simulations in Cosmology edited by Kentaro Nagamine (Osaka University / University of Nevada), Dark Energy by Shinji Tsujikawa (Tokyo University of Science), and Dark Matter by Jihn E Kim (Seoul National University). The Encyclopedia aims to provide an overview of the most important topics in cosmology and serve as an up-to-date reference in astrophysics.

The proceedings of MG16 give a broad view of all aspects of gravitational physics and astrophysics, from mathematical issues to recent observations and experiments. The scientific program of the meeting included 46 plenary presentations, 3 public lectures, 5 round tables and 81 parallel sessions arranged during the intense six-day online meeting. All talks were recorded and are available on the ICRANet YouTube channel at the following link: www.icranet.org/video_mg16.These proceedings are a representative sample of the very many contributions made at the meeting. They contain 383 papers, among which 14 come from the plenary sessions.The material represented in these proceedings cover the following topics: accretion, active galactic nuclei, alternative theories of gravity, black holes (theory, observations and experiments), binaries, boson stars, cosmic microwave background, cosmic strings, dark energy and large scale structure, dark matter, education, exact solutions, early universe, fundamental interactions and stellar evolution, fast transients, gravitational waves, high energy physics, history of relativity, neutron stars, precision tests, quantum gravity, strong fields, and white dwarf; all of them represented by a large number of contributions.The online e-proceedings are published in an open access format.

This book addresses three “hot” topics concerning the general problem of the origin of Galactic cosmic rays, namely (1) the acceleration, propagation, and radiation of particles in supernova remnants; (2) very high energy neutrinos from the Galactic Center; and (3) the potential held by the next-generation gamma-ray and neutrino detectors CTA and KM3NeT for studying extended non-thermal sources in the Galaxy. The topics are intrinsically connected to determining the nature (“hadronic or leptonic?”) of gamma-ray emissions from young and middle-aged supernova remnants and the search for cosmic-ray PeVatrons. The results and conclusions provided here are based on extensive analytical and numerical simulations, which are formulated and presented in a straightforward format that can be readily used in the interpretations of gamma-ray and neutrino observations, as well as for confident predictions for future measurements.

This book summarizes the science to be carried out by the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array, a major ground-based gamma-ray observatory that will be constructed over the next six to eight years. The major scientific themes, as well as core program of key science projects, have been developed by the CTA Consortium, a collaboration of scientists from many institutions worldwide.CTA will be the major facility in high-energy and very high-energy photon astronomy over the next decade and beyond. CTA will have capabilities well beyond past and present observatories. Thus, CTA's science program is expected to be rich and broad and will complement other major multiwavelength and multimessenger facilities. This book is intended to be the primary resource for the science case for CTA and it thus will be of great interest to the broader physics and astronomy communities. The electronic version (e-book) is available in open access.