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Compact stars. Nuclear physics, particle physics, and general relativity. 2nd ed. (English) Zbl 0958.85001

Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. New York, NY: Springer. xviii, 467 p. DM 179.00; öS 1307.00; sFr 162.00; £61.50; $ 89.95 (2000).
Compact stars considered in the book are white dwarfs and neutron/ hyperon/ hybrid/ quark/ strange stars. They all as well as (solar mass) black holes, supernovae and planetary nebulae are (or rather may be) the end products of evolution of ordinary stars.
The book explores in detail the properties of the matter at the nuclear and super-nuclear densities, as well as the internal structure and global characteristics (mass and radius) of compact stars, their stability and observable signals.
First it reviews the special and general relativity (Chapter 2), the relativistic field theory of the strong interacting (super-)nuclear matter, (Chapter 4), and general features of white dwarfs (containing mostly nuclei and degenerate electrons), pulsars, neutron stars and black holes (Chapter 3).
Then the author develops in detail the theory for the constitution and rotation of the neutron stars (Chapters 5-7), the quark and the hybrid stars (with quark matter core surrounded by the lattice of quark and hadronic matter) (Chapters 8, 9), and strange stars (composed of hypothetically stable quark matter) (Chapter 12).
It is repeatedly underlined that all phase transitions in the matter of compact stars are not under constant pressure (as in the case of simple matter, water – ice, e.g.) but rather occur smoothly in the large transition mixed-phase layer.
This second revised edition (first edition 1996) includes two new chapters on Bose condensates in neutron stars (Chapter 10) and on the observable consequences of phase transitions in compact stars (Chapter 11).
I dare to make only two remarks: while the author repeats many times explanations of the simpler notions, the reader is assumed to be well acquainted with the much more advanced topics. Also, the book deals mainly with the author’s results however with non-sufficient references to other authors (in spite of 473 references).

MSC:

85-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to astronomy and astrophysics
83-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory
85A04 General questions in astronomy and astrophysics
83A05 Special relativity
81V35 Nuclear physics
81V25 Other elementary particle theory in quantum theory
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