Physics of Black Holes

Abstract

The Fudan Winter School on Astrophysical Black Holes was held at Fudan Univer- sity, in Shanghai, from February 10 to 15, 2014. The school was organized with the spirit to contribute to the growth of the high energy astrophysics community in China and to promote the interaction among people working in different places of the country. It seemed also to be a good way to make know the new gravity and high energy physics group at the Department of Physics of Fudan University. Depart- ments of physics in China have a strong tradition in condensed matter and applied physics, while they are weak in the other fields. As the rest of the country, they are nowin a phase of quick expansion and they are trying to form research groupswork- ing even in other areas. High energy astrophysics seems to be one of the most active new directions and there is an increasing number of students that want to work in this field. However, with the exception of a few cases, departments of physics in China have not yet a satisfactory astrophysics program. Fudan University is proba- bly one of the best examples: while it is one of the top universities in China, there is no undergraduate or postgraduate course in astronomy/astrophysics. The school consisted of six series of lectures given by experts in their research field and covering basic topics in black hole astrophysics and important directions in current research. It was mainly intended for Master/PhD students. The event was attended by approximately 60 participants. At the end of the school, we considered the possibility of organizing a contributed volume, by inviting each lecturer to write an independent chapter. Most lecturers accepted the invitations and the result is this book. This volume has all the features to become a very useful reference book to researchers and students working on astrophysical black holes.