Central Activity in Galaxies

This outstanding collection of surveys addresses graduate
and predoctoral students. It reports on theoretical research
and observational data on active galactic nuclei: The enigma
of the nuclei of galaxies with their central "monster"
driving the vast range of activity observed in quasars,
radio galaxies, Seyferts, starburst galaxies and even our
own Galaxy are explored in this volume. Topics covered
include: the impact of recent measurements in the infrared
and radio region on our knowledge of thenucleus of our
Galaxy; the spectra and classification of active galactic
nuclei, the properties of their host galaxies, their
cosmological distribution and evolution, the role of stars
and thehydrodynamics of the interstellar medium in the
nuclei; the description of the inner parsec of a standard
active galactic nucleus based on direct interpretation of
the observations; the infrared activity of galaxies; the
physics of radio galaxies and their jets, emphasizing the
physics ofgas flow and high-energy particle interactions as
well as shock acceleration. These are all discussed in
considerable depth and presented inself-contained chapters
with exhaustive reference lists of the scientific
literature.