Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium

This book is a graduate-level text covering the fundamental physics and chemistry required for a modern understanding of the interstellar medium. Radiation mechanisms are comprehensively presented, and extensive examples are drawn from observations in the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, mm/sub mm, and radio observations. This book goes beyond a phenomenological study of the interstellar medium to give a detailed quantitative treatment of the radiative and dynamical interactions between stars and the interstellar medium. With an emphasis on a physical understanding of these processes, the mathematical derivations are clean, elegant and easily understandable by anyone with an undergraduate background in physics.

Table of Contents:
1 The Interstellar Medium 2 Fundamental Concepts of Radiation 3 Measurements of Radiation 4 Photoionization and Recombination 5 Line Radiation from Atoms and Ions 6 Continuum Radiation in the Gas Phase 7 Interstellar Molecules 8 Vibrational Spectroscopy of Polyatomic Molecules 9 Molecular Excitation and Abundance Determination 10 Interstellar Grains: Physical Processes 11 The Chemical Composition of Interstellar and Circumstellar Grains 12 Carbonaceous Grains 13 The Origin of Interstellar Dust 14 Chemical Reactions in the ISM 15 Gas Dynamics, Gravitational Collapse, and Stellar Winds 16 Interaction between Stars and the Interstellar Medium 17 Beyond the Galaxy

About the Author :
SUN KWOK is a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and Faculty Professor of the University of Calgary, Canada. He has published over 200 scientific papers in the fields of interstellar medium and stellar evolution. He is best known for his theory on the origin of planetary nebulae and for the study of organic compounds in the circumstellar environment.

Review :
"I would recommend that this book be adopted by faculty for their courses. Students will learn a great deal from it, and it will be useful as a reference for researchers in this field." --Mark Wolfire, University of Maryland "This book is one of the few modern texts on the interstellar medium. It is particularly excellent for microphysical processes and particularly those that are not easily accessible—physically oriented discussions of atomic and molecular excitation and radiation, molecular binding and astrochemical processes, and important detailed aspects of interstellar grains such as the observational manifestations and formation/destruction mechanisms." --Carl Heiles, UC Berkeley