A quest for perspectives: selected works of S. Chandrasekhar: with commentary

This two-volume set presents a selection of physicist S. Chandrasekha's original papers in their published form (representing examples from each period of his research) together with discussion. Volume I covers the theory of white dwarfs and stellar interiors; radiative transfer, the polarization of the sunlit sky, and the negative ion of hydrogen; stochastic and statistical problems in astronomy; turbulence and hydromagnetic problems in astrophysics; and hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic stability. Volume II discusses ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium; relativistic instabilities and post-Newtonian approximations; the mathematical theory of black holes, and colliding waves; the nonradial oscillations of stars in general relativity; and miscellaneous writings. Wali (Syracuse U.) chose articles that are to a great extent self-contained and lay the ground work for subsequent detailed research, as well as many that are based on talks at various conferences. There is no index. Distributed by World Scientific. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)