- Email: [email protected]
Eclipsing variable stars
Book Reviews For an introductory text, this is a sound decision, and helpful to the student, although it does lengthen the book and fill many pages with mathematical formulae. Altogether, these books provide a sound and well-based introduction to the methods and applications of theoretical physics. The arguments given are constructed carefully and explicitly. A wide variety of applications are discussed, many of them quite modern in spirit, which will help to hold the student’s attention. However, these volumes include no problem sets, which is rather a disadvantage for their use as a textbook. R. H. DALITZ Department of Theoretical Phytica University of Oxford, Oxford ECLIPSING VARIABLE STARS, edited by V. P. Tsesevich (transl. from the Russian by R. Hardin). 310 pages, diagrams, 7 x 9) in. Halsted and Wiley, New York, Toronto. 1973. Price, $28.50 (approx. 211.00). Here is a very useful survey of the theory of orbital determination of eclipsing variable stars from western and Russian sources. The book is a translation from the Russian of Zatmennye Peremennye Zvezdy, published in Moscow in 1971. The Israel Program for Scientific Translations published it in Israel in 1973. It consists of nine chapters: three chapters are written by V. P. Tsesevich, two are by A. M. Shul’berg and two by D. Ya. Martynov. Single Chapters are written by V. M. Tabachnik and A. M. Cherepashchuk. After an introductory chapter the eclipses of spherical stars moving in circular orbits are considered. The RussellMerrill method, Fetlaar’s method and the method by Kopal and Piotrowski are discussed in great detail. Next, eclipsing systems with deformed components are considered, essentially in an analytical way. The methods to compute the orbital elements by using computers for the analytical solution are discussed. A chapter covering unique systems gives information about some very interesting cases. In the final chapter the elliptical
Vol. 298, No. 1, July 1974
orbits, the effect of apsidal motion and the effect of a third body on the epochs of minimum light are discussed. The reader will find a discussion of the Roche lobes but not a summary chapter about the synthetic light variation of contact binaries filling up their lobes or overflowing them. No analytical solution exists for this case but it can be calculated by numerical integration using the large computers. Most of the publications concerned with this subject were published during the last 5 years, whereas the original Russian manuscripts were sent to the printer in 1970. This reviewer found only one serious error. In Chap. 4, p. 72, the definition of “gray” atmosphere is incorrect. In such an atmosphere the absorption coefficient is assumed to be independent of the frequency. However, the limb darkening coefficient depends on wavelength, as can be seen in Table 1, p. 75. In the linear expression of the limb darkening law this coefficient cannot exceed unity; however, two values greater than one appear in this table. On p. 175, it is stated that the reflection effect with opposite sign has been observed in a few cases but that no theoretical explanation exists. This explanation was given by J. E. Merrill in Fistas in Astronomy, Vol. 12, p. 43 (1970), but apparently did not reach the Russian author in time. This book is not completely up to date due to t.he unavoidable delay in the translation. However, it still can be recommended for any worker in the field. LEENDERT BINNENDIJK Astronomy Department University of Penn8ylvania Philadelphia, Pa.
MICROSCOPICTHEORY OF THE NUCLEUS, by J. M. Eisenberg and W. Greiner. 519 pages, diagrams, 6 x 9 in. Elsevier, New York, 1972. Price, $33.50 (approx. 212.95). This is the third and last volume of Eisenberg and Greiner’s remarkably encyclopedic set on nuclear theory. It easily stands apart from the others as an introduction to the modern techniques of
77
Vol. 298, No. 1, July 1974
orbits, the effect of apsidal motion and the effect of a third body on the epochs of minimum light are discussed. The reader will find a discussion of the Roche lobes but not a summary chapter about the synthetic light variation of contact binaries filling up their lobes or overflowing them. No analytical solution exists for this case but it can be calculated by numerical integration using the large computers. Most of the publications concerned with this subject were published during the last 5 years, whereas the original Russian manuscripts were sent to the printer in 1970. This reviewer found only one serious error. In Chap. 4, p. 72, the definition of “gray” atmosphere is incorrect. In such an atmosphere the absorption coefficient is assumed to be independent of the frequency. However, the limb darkening coefficient depends on wavelength, as can be seen in Table 1, p. 75. In the linear expression of the limb darkening law this coefficient cannot exceed unity; however, two values greater than one appear in this table. On p. 175, it is stated that the reflection effect with opposite sign has been observed in a few cases but that no theoretical explanation exists. This explanation was given by J. E. Merrill in Fistas in Astronomy, Vol. 12, p. 43 (1970), but apparently did not reach the Russian author in time. This book is not completely up to date due to t.he unavoidable delay in the translation. However, it still can be recommended for any worker in the field. LEENDERT BINNENDIJK Astronomy Department University of Penn8ylvania Philadelphia, Pa.
MICROSCOPICTHEORY OF THE NUCLEUS, by J. M. Eisenberg and W. Greiner. 519 pages, diagrams, 6 x 9 in. Elsevier, New York, 1972. Price, $33.50 (approx. 212.95). This is the third and last volume of Eisenberg and Greiner’s remarkably encyclopedic set on nuclear theory. It easily stands apart from the others as an introduction to the modern techniques of
77