Extragalactic Astrophysics

Extragalactic Astrophysics synthesizes the most important topics in the field of extragalactic astrophysics at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level, providing the reader with the foundation and tools for research in any of these areas. It attempts to cover a broad range of topics for a graduate-level class in a physics department where students’ available credit hours for astrophysics classes are limited. The sections cover galactic structure, external galaxies, galaxy clustering, active galaxies, general relativity and cosmology.

The major topics include: galactic coordinate systems, galaxy morphology, stellar mass functions, the galactic center, galactic rotation curves, galactic structure, active galaxies, supermassive black holes, accretion disks, relativistic cosmology and the evolution of the universe. This book is intended for advanced undergraduate physics/astronomy students, physics graduate students, or postgraduate professional physicists and astronomers wishing to learn the important aspects of this broad field. Readers should have a strong background in physics as well as college-level chemistry, calculus, and differential equations.