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Case studies in atomic collision physics
Planet.SpaceSci. 1973,Vol. 21,pp. 1271to 1272. PersamonPKW. F’riitcdin NorthernIreland
BOOK REVIEWS
I&LE-JACQUES
BLIJM:
Les Radiotelescopes.
Presses
Universitaires
de France.
1972.
128 pp. 3.95 F.fr. This comes BY A CURIOUS irony, the modern Lingua Franca for scientific writing is English, not French. hard on French students, for whom there is little written in their native language. Professor Blum’s book on radio telescopes, written in French specifically for science students, is a small counter-weight in the balance. After a short introduction giving some necessary physical theory in elementary terms, the book deals with the familiar steerable ‘dish’ type of radio telescope, under the heading Single Antenna Telescope, and then turns to the less familiar versions-arrays, crosses and aperture synthesis devices-under the heading Multiple Antenna Telescopes. The author has undertaken a difficult task, on the one hand to set his level of explanation suitable to undergraduate students or below, but on the other hand to explain some of the extremely sophisticated systems now in use in such a way as to satisfy the post graduate students who, one would think, are the ones who would most wish to use this book. The results of this compromise are sometimes uneasy-those who need Chapter I cannot hope to gain much from Chapter V, and vice versa. Nevertheless the author has succeeded in setting down for the first time in one book much material which is scattered about in the technical literature and which (if translated into the modem Lingua Franca) would be appreciated by students starting Radio Astronomy in any country. R. G. CONWAY
E. W. MCDANIEL and M. R. C. MCDOWELL (Editors): Case Studies in Atomic Collision Physics, Vol. II. North-Holland. 1972. xiv f 649. Dfl. 150.00. U.S. $47.00. Trns is the last volume of Case Studies in Atomic Collision Physics at least in the sense that the hard-backed compilation is being changed into a bimonthly journal covering all of atomic and molecular physics and called Case Studies in Atomic Physics. Each contribution to the volume is a useful but straightforward survey. There is little evidence of the analytic dimension suggested by the words Case Studies. The titles of the chapters (with the authors’ names in brackets) are as follows: 1. Three-body recombination of positive and negative ions (M. R. Flannery); 2. Precision measurements of electron transport coefficients (M. T. Elford); 3. Differential cross sections in electron impact ionization (H. Ehrhandt, K. H. Hesselbacher, K. Jung and K. Willmann); 4. Interpretation of spectral intensities from laboratory and astrophysical plasmas (A. H. Gabriel and Carole Jordan); 5. Atomic processes in astrophysical plasmas (Valerie P. Myerscough and G. Peach); 6. Polarized orbital approximations (R. J. Drachman and A. Temkin); 7. Photodetachment cross sections and electron atBnities (B. Steiner); 8. Role of metastable particles in collision processes (R. D. Rundel and R. F. Stebbings). Readers of Planetary und Space Science are likely to be especially interested in Chapters 4,5 and 8. There is an author index and a short subject index. The book production is of that very high standard which we have become so accustomed to that we now scarcely notice. D. R. BATES
A. J. HUNDI-LWSEN: Coronal Expansion and the Solar Wind. Springer, Berlin. 1972.xii + 238. DM 68. U.S. 821.60 THIS is a concise and well written review and the author achieves his aim of being intelligible to postgraduate students. The book contains 101 figures and over 300 references (including material published in early 1972). but virtually no Russian sources are cited. For observations the author relies heavily on Vela data even when better material might be available. The book starts with the historical background leading up to Parker’s prediction of the solar wind. The author gives a new classitication of solar wind phenomena in terms of three timescales, ~(-50 hr) the timescale for propagation to 1 a.u., ~~(-5 hr) the observation time corresponding to the scalelength for decay
1271
BOOK REVIEWS
I&LE-JACQUES
BLIJM:
Les Radiotelescopes.
Presses
Universitaires
de France.
1972.
128 pp. 3.95 F.fr. This comes BY A CURIOUS irony, the modern Lingua Franca for scientific writing is English, not French. hard on French students, for whom there is little written in their native language. Professor Blum’s book on radio telescopes, written in French specifically for science students, is a small counter-weight in the balance. After a short introduction giving some necessary physical theory in elementary terms, the book deals with the familiar steerable ‘dish’ type of radio telescope, under the heading Single Antenna Telescope, and then turns to the less familiar versions-arrays, crosses and aperture synthesis devices-under the heading Multiple Antenna Telescopes. The author has undertaken a difficult task, on the one hand to set his level of explanation suitable to undergraduate students or below, but on the other hand to explain some of the extremely sophisticated systems now in use in such a way as to satisfy the post graduate students who, one would think, are the ones who would most wish to use this book. The results of this compromise are sometimes uneasy-those who need Chapter I cannot hope to gain much from Chapter V, and vice versa. Nevertheless the author has succeeded in setting down for the first time in one book much material which is scattered about in the technical literature and which (if translated into the modem Lingua Franca) would be appreciated by students starting Radio Astronomy in any country. R. G. CONWAY
E. W. MCDANIEL and M. R. C. MCDOWELL (Editors): Case Studies in Atomic Collision Physics, Vol. II. North-Holland. 1972. xiv f 649. Dfl. 150.00. U.S. $47.00. Trns is the last volume of Case Studies in Atomic Collision Physics at least in the sense that the hard-backed compilation is being changed into a bimonthly journal covering all of atomic and molecular physics and called Case Studies in Atomic Physics. Each contribution to the volume is a useful but straightforward survey. There is little evidence of the analytic dimension suggested by the words Case Studies. The titles of the chapters (with the authors’ names in brackets) are as follows: 1. Three-body recombination of positive and negative ions (M. R. Flannery); 2. Precision measurements of electron transport coefficients (M. T. Elford); 3. Differential cross sections in electron impact ionization (H. Ehrhandt, K. H. Hesselbacher, K. Jung and K. Willmann); 4. Interpretation of spectral intensities from laboratory and astrophysical plasmas (A. H. Gabriel and Carole Jordan); 5. Atomic processes in astrophysical plasmas (Valerie P. Myerscough and G. Peach); 6. Polarized orbital approximations (R. J. Drachman and A. Temkin); 7. Photodetachment cross sections and electron atBnities (B. Steiner); 8. Role of metastable particles in collision processes (R. D. Rundel and R. F. Stebbings). Readers of Planetary und Space Science are likely to be especially interested in Chapters 4,5 and 8. There is an author index and a short subject index. The book production is of that very high standard which we have become so accustomed to that we now scarcely notice. D. R. BATES
A. J. HUNDI-LWSEN: Coronal Expansion and the Solar Wind. Springer, Berlin. 1972.xii + 238. DM 68. U.S. 821.60 THIS is a concise and well written review and the author achieves his aim of being intelligible to postgraduate students. The book contains 101 figures and over 300 references (including material published in early 1972). but virtually no Russian sources are cited. For observations the author relies heavily on Vela data even when better material might be available. The book starts with the historical background leading up to Parker’s prediction of the solar wind. The author gives a new classitication of solar wind phenomena in terms of three timescales, ~(-50 hr) the timescale for propagation to 1 a.u., ~~(-5 hr) the observation time corresponding to the scalelength for decay
1271