The Physics of the Interstellar Medium

This third edition of The Physics of the Interstellar Medium continues to introduce advanced undergraduates to the fundamental processes and the wide range of disciplines needed to understand observations of the interstellar medium and its role in the Milky Way galaxy. The book is suitable for undergraduate students studying physics, astronomy, and astrophysics. The book also provides concise and straightforward discussions of interstellar physics and chemistry that are useful for more experienced readers.

The book leads readers through the range of physical processes operating on both large and small scales that occur in the interstellar medium. It explores the relationship between the dusty, tenuous gas in interstellar space and the formation of stars and planets. This new edition also describes exciting developments in the field of astrochemistry and its interaction with interstellar physics, and the roles played by interstellar dust grains in interstellar physics and chemistry.

Simple models in each chapter, together with problems at the end of each chapter, encompass interdisciplinary applications in atomic, molecular, solid state, and surface physics, and gas dynamics. This popular textbook provides a useful overview and grounding in the study of the interstellar medium and brings insight into many aspects of physics.

Features

• An authoritative textbook in the field at this academic level
• Provides a wide introduction to the interstellar medium whilst remaining accessible and concise
• Revised throughout, presenting a modern understanding of the interstellar medium

John Dyson made outstanding research contributions over many years to our

understanding of the responses of interstellar media to winds from stars and

from active galaxies. He had a huge influence on these subjects and his work

gained an international reputation. Much of his career was at the University of

Manchester where he became Professor of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics.

He moved in 1996 to the University of Leeds, becoming Dean of Research, and

was appointed Emeritus Research Professor in 2006.

He died in 2010 and is much missed by friends and colleagues world-wide

who valued his scientific insight, quick wit, kindness and generosity.

David Williams is currently Emeritus Perren Professor of Astronomy at University

College London. While at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the 1960s he

became interested in interstellar molecules and interstellar dust as potential

probes of the interstellar medium. When John Dyson and David were both

working in Manchester, John emphasised the importance of cosmic gas dynamics

in understanding interstellar chemistry and dust, and David built a research

group at UMIST to investigate these and other topics. He left Manchester in

1994 for UCL and has continued to study problems in interstellar physics and

chemistry.