Stellar Physics , G. S. Bisnovatyi-Kogan (translated from Russian by A. Y. Blinov and M. Romanova ) Volume 2: Stellar Evolution and Stability Springer-Verlag, New York, 2002. $89.95 (381 pp.). ISBN 3-540-66987-6
Sometimes just the right combination of events allows a scientific field to advance particularly rapidly. People are most familiar with how quantum mechanics arose in the first part of the 20th century, but models of stellar structure and evolution arose similarly at midcentury. In about 1955, only fairly elementary, semianalytic stellar models existed. By about 1970, stellar models offered a relatively detailed knowledge of the structure and evolution of stars, from the beginning of the slow-time-scale nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium, through the processing of other elements, until (often) something dramatic happens in stellar evolution.
Major catalysts for this knowledge jump were the development of computers for widespread academic use and the corresponding development of numerical methods. The Henyey technique (as it is known in stellar astrophysics) was a noteworthy numerical method for solving implicit finite-difference equations. This technique allows the full equations of stellar structure to be solved with reasonable physical models for the equation of state and nuclear processing.
Of course, such a dramatic pace of advancement could not continue indefinitely. By the early 1970s, much of the broad scope of stellar evolution was reasonably well known. Attention then turned to more detailed issues, many of which remain only partially solved. By the 1980s, the focus of astronomy and astrophysics had moved to other new and exciting areas. Stellar-evolution research did not cease, but many problems of stellar structure (such as the solar neutrino problem) steadfastly refused to be solved. In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, stellar structure experienced something of a renaissance, prompted in part by three factors. First, astronomers observed the supernova SN1987A, and were helped by knowledge about that star before it exploded. Second, measurements of many oscillation periods of the Sun provided a finely tuned diagnostic of the solar structure. Third, astrophysicists realized that stellar composition undergoes considerably more slow-time-scale movement within the star than had been thought. Such efforts to understand stellar structure and evolution continue.
The advances of the past decade present a problem for this volume of Stellar Physics, which was published in Russian in 1989. In the current English version, Gennadii S. Bisnovatyi-Kogan has included a fair amount of material from the past decade but seems to have focused on updating the areas already covered rather than on adding new topics. As the preface states, the author has tailored his presentation to his own many and varied professional interests, including supernovae, the formation of accretion disks, and stellar stability. Although that practice is acceptable, it means a number of topics that should have been included in a general-purpose text have been left out. For example, there is little discussion of solar-oscillation theory, virtually nothing on how the solar-oscillation results have changed the astrophysical picture of the Sun, and not much on the mechanisms for transport of the chemical composition inside stars or on the motivation for such transport.
Although the omissions may make the book unsuitable for a graduate-level text on stellar evolution, the work has many strong points. For one, the author includes detailed discussions of the final stages of stellar evolution, which take up approximately half the book. He also offers in-depth results from Soviet and Russian research. Bisnovatyi-Kogan’s discussion of astrophysicists’ inability to produce supernova models that account for basic observations nicely summarizes the state of the art. The book’s tables present many detailed results that can help validate current research models for situations in which the basic input physics—such as radiative opacities and nuclear energy generation—has not changed very much.
Although the translation is not always grammatically precise, it is clear. However, I found the system of references disruptive to my reading: The text cites references only by number, so I had to turn to the citation index in the back to find the authors and papers. Also, although the numbered reference list is putatively alphabetical, the actual order is only partially so. Such minor reservations aside, I heartily recommend the book for researchers in the field.
