Extra Solar Planets The Detection, Formation, Evolution and Dynamics of Planetary Systems

About this book

Expanding upon a series of lectures for graduate students and young researchers held in the summer of 2007, this book includes the contributions of recognized world leaders writing on their areas of expertise. While the text offers the solid grounding required by graduate students, it promotes deepened interest by looking at a number of advanced topics, including the most recent theories about the creation and development of planets, including our own.

Contents

DETECTION OF EXTRA SOLAR PLANETS. METHODS AND OBSERVATIONS. Detecting planets with radial velocity surveys. Detection of extra-solar planets in wide field surveys. Cool planet detection using gravitational microlensing. Modelling spectroscopic and polarimetric signatures of exoplanets. Planets around pulsars and white dwarfs. FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS. Photo-planetary disks -- observing planet-forming material. Dynamical evolution of planetary systems and debris discs. Late stages of solar system formation. DYANMICS OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS. Orbit determination for extra-solar planetary systems. Fundamentals of perturbation theory. Mechanisms for the production of chaos in dynamical systems. Fundamentals of regularization theory. The dynamics of real exoplanetary systems. On the stability of planetary systems. Did the two Earth poles move widely 13,000 years ago?

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Biography

B.A. Steves is a professor of mathematical astronomy and director of the Graduate School at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research interests include celestial mechanics, solar system dynamics, stability and chaotic behavior of stellar clusters, extra-solar planets, and other few body systems. M. Hendry is a senior lecturer in astronomy at the University of Glasgow. His main research interests involve the precise determination of the size and age of the Universe, testing theories for the formation and evolution of galaxies, and new applications of gravitational lensing. A.C. Cameron is a professor of astronomy at the University of St. Andrews. His research encompasses the areas of extra-solar planets and cool stars.