Solar and Astrophysical Magnetohydrodynamic Flows, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1996
Nato Science Series C: Series, Vol. 481

Modern observations, including recent ones with the Hubble Space Telescope, have revealed that the Universe is replete with plasma outflows from all kinds of objects, ranging from stars in all their variety to galaxies. In this masterly survey of plasma astrophysics, written by leading practitioners, the first 15 articles in Part I deal with the use of the MHD approach in several key problems of solar plasma, such as magnetoconvection and magnetic field generation, sunspots and coronal loops, magnetic nonequilibrium and coronal heating, coronal mass ejections, the acceleration of the solar wind, and stellar winds across the Main Sequence. The following 16 articles of Part II deal with the use of the same MHD approach in several central and puzzling aspects of more distant astrophysical plasmas, such as the dynamics of the interstellar medium, collimated outflows from young stellar objects and accretion disks, molecular outflows and jets associated with enigmatic binaries and symbiotic stars, relativistic flows associated with superluminal microquasars in our own galaxy, astrophysical jets from nearby galaxies, or remote active galactic nuclei and quasars, probably fuelled by supermassive black holes. The emphasis throughout is on the striking underlying similarities in the physics of all these problems.
Audience: Indispensable for solar physicists and astrophysics alike. An ideal textbook for graduate students in physics and astrophysics.

I: SOLAR MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC FLOWS.- 1. Questions and Conjectures on the Origin of Stellar and Galactic Magnetic Fields.- 2. Magnetic Flux Tubes and the Solar Dynamo.- 3. Siphon Flows in Solar Magnetic Flux Tubes and Sunspots.- 4. MHD Waves in Magnetic Flux Tubes.- 5. The Dynamic Solar Corona in X-rays with Yohkoh.- 6 The Spontaneous Formation of Current-Sheets in Astrophysical Magnetic Fields.- 7. Magnetohydrodynamic Processes in the Solar Corona: Flares, Coronal Mass Ejections and Magnetic Helicity.- 8. Reconnection of Magnetic Lines of Force.- 9. New Developments in Magnetic Reconnection Theory.- 10. Hydrodynamic and Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence.- 11. Numerical Simulations of Solar and Astrophysical MHD Flows.- 12. Further Thoughts on the Solar Corona as a Minimum Energy System.- 13. ULYSSES Observations of the Solar Wind Out of the Ecliptic Plane.- 14. Stellar Winds.- 15. Some Implications of Solar and Stellar Activity.- II: ASTROPHYSICAL MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC FLOWS.- 16. Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Galactic and Extragalactic Jets.- 17. Exact MHD Solutions for Self-similar Outflows.- 18. Numerical Simulation of Plasma Flow in the Magnetosphere of an Axisymmetric Rotator.- 19. Critical Points and Separatrix Characteristics in Solar and Astrophysical MHD Flows.- 20. Collimation of MHD Outflows.- 21. The Parker Instability in the Interstellar Medium.- 22. Multifluid Magnetohydrodynamics and Star Formation.- 23. Jets Associated with Young Stars.- 24 Molecular Outflows from Protostars.- 25. Jets and MHD Flows Associated with Symbiotic Stars.- 26. Phenomenology and Modelling of Large-scale Jets.- 27. MHD Accretion-ejection Flows in Active Galactic Nuclei.- 28. Interaction of Turbulent Accretion Disks with Embedded Magnetic Fields.- 29. Magnetic Reconnection inAccretion Disc Coronae.- 30. Relativistic Outflows in the Galaxy.- 31. Stationary Relativistic MHD Flows.