3/10/2025
Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars: The Physics of Compact Objects educated generations of astrophysicists
Written by
Illinois Physics and Astronomy Professor Stuart L. Shapiro was featured in the March 5 episode of a video series celebrating influential classic textbooks in gravitation and relativity. The video series is produced by the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG).
Shapiro co-authored the textbook Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars: The Physics of Compact Objects with Cornell University and California Institute of Technology Physics Professor Saul A. Teukolsky, who is also featured in the video. The two are introduced by Johns Hopkins University Physics Professor Emmanuel Berti, who writes about the presentation in his blog. Additional seminal textbooks included in the ISGRG video series are Gravitation by Charles W. Misner and Kip S. Thorne (1973), The Large-Scale Structure of Space-Time by Stephen W. Hawking and George F. R. Ellis (1973), and General Relativity by Robert M. Wald (1984).
Shapiro and Teukolsky's 1983 textbook covers the theoretical and observational foundations of the physics and astrophysics governing compact objects. Generations of students who became relativists and astrophysicists were trained on this influential textbook, which was first published over 40 years ago.
Click on the book cover below to watch the video on YouTube!