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High energy gamma-ray photons are the prime probes of the relativistic or high-energy universe, populated by black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, quasars, and matter-antimatter annihilations. Through studying the gamma-ray sky, astrophysicists are able to better understand the formation and behavior of these exotic and energetic bodies. Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy summarizes the status of gamma-ray astronomy at energies between 30MeV and 50TeV at a critical point in the development of the discipline: the hiatus between the demise of the EGRET telescope and the launch of the next generation of space telescopes. Starting with an overview of the astrophysics of the bodies that generate high energy gamma rays, it proceeds to discuss the latest developments in observational techniques and equipment. By presenting the techniques, observations, and theories of this expanding frontier, Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy aids experimentalists and theoreticians in detecting and explaining gamma rays of the highest energies.
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Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy
Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics Series Editors: M Birkinshaw, University of Bristol, UK M Elvis, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA J Silk, University of Oxford, UK The Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics includes books on all aspects of theoretical and experimental astronomy and astrophysics. Books in the series range in level from textbooks and handbooks to more advanced expositions of current research. Other books in the series The Physics of Interstellar Dust E Kr¨ugel Dark Sky, Dark Matter J M Overduin and P S Wesson Dust in the Galactic Environment, 2nd Edition D C B Whittet An Introduction to the Science of Cosmology D J Raine and E G Thomas The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System M M Woolfson The Physics of the Interstellar Medium J E Dyson and D A Williams