IISc professor’s book on astrophysics makes waves in global academy

Physics Today, a publication of the American Institute of Physics, has in its January 2011 edition highly lauded Arnab Rai Choudhuri’s book, Astrophysics for Physicists.

Professor Choudhuri works in the department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

Writing in Physics Today, George Smoot, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006, described the book as a “solid up-to-date text” on astrophysics.

“As one would anticipate from the author’s background in solar magnetohydrodynamics, Astrophysics for Physicists contains good passages on fluids, plasmas, magnetic fields, and general relativity, and it provides strong mathematics-based discussions of many of the important areas of astrophysics. It stresses theory, but also discusses several experimental and observational topics...To Choudhuri’s credit, the book is overall fairly up to date in most areas... Astrophysics for Physicists represents a useful learning framework and theoretical reference tool for the newcomer and a quick reference for those working in related areas. Overall I rate it as a solid up-to-date text,” Smoot wrote.

Moreover, the book has also been listed as an “Outstanding Academic Title of 2010” in Choice, the magazine of American Library Association.

“It’s a great honour for me and my book. I am happy with the review by the Nobel laureate,” said Choudhuri.

He said he wrote the book as he felt that there was a dearth of good books to teach astrophysics to students who had learnt a fair amount of physics in their undergraduate level.

“The book is based on the course Fundamentals of Astrophysics offered regularly in IISc,” said Choudhuri, who is also a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences.

The 500-page book has been published by Cambridge University Press in March 2010, and is priced at Rs495.

The book has also garnered good responses from scientists across the world. Academicians feel that with its lucid writings, the book has become the standard for advanced undergraduate courses.

“At last! An astrophysics textbook for Physics majors that does not shy away from fluids, plasmas, and general relativity. With transparent physical reasoning and beautifully clear writing throughout, this book should become the standard for advanced undergraduate courses, and recommended reading for beginning graduate students. An outstanding complement to Choudhuri’s previous masterwork, The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas,” said Prof Mitchell C Begelman, University of Colorado, author of Gravity’s Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe, about Choudhuri’s book.

Prof Ramesh Narayan of Harvard University said, “This book should be required reading for any serious student or practitioner of Physics.”