The Physics Of Accretion Onto Compact Objects: Proceedings Of A Workshop Held In Tenerife, Spain, April, 21-25, 1986 (lecture Notes In Physics)

The Tenerife workshop had its genesis in The Hague in November 1984 during the XVIII F~LAB symposium. That meeting was devoted to new results from the European Space Agency's EXOSAT X-ray observatory, but we reallsed that a full assimilation of the EXOSAT results would eventually require a different sort of meeting in which they were set in the context of the subject as a whole. A major part of the work done with EXOSAT concerned sources in which accretion is the dominant energy generation process, so it was natural to choose this topic as the focus of the Tenerife Workshop. We deliberately organised sessions around physical, rather than observational, topics to avoid the schism that often occurs between people with primarily Galactic and Extragalactic interests, we hope to the benefit of both groups. We have followed the organisation of the meeting as far as possible in these proceedings which contain the main review papers that were presented. Considerable credit for the success of the meeting must go to the scientific organising committee. Not only did we follow their suggestions when constructing the main program, but individual members were responsible for the conduct and content of the discussion intervals that made up approximately half of each session. Their enthusiasm, and that of the audience, established the characteristic flavour of the meeting. In choosing to hold the conference on Tener~e, we were mindful that the Canary Islands are a rapidly expanding center for ground-based astronomical research. The observatories at Isana, and at El Roque de los Muchachos on the nearby island of La Palma are among the best observing sites in the world and are home for the telescopes of several European nations. We received considerable encouragement in setting up the meeting from Brian Taylor of ESA, and from the staff of the Royal Greenwich Observatory on La Palma, and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias on Tenerife under their director, Professor F. Sanche|. Particular mention should be made of Paul Murdin of the RGO, and Campbell Warden of the IAC who found us & pleasant, congenial site at the Maritim Hotel in Puerto dela Crus, and who smoothed the way for the conference participants. The local organisation was the responsibility of David Pike (RGO), Evencio Mediavilla (IAC), and Carmen Rosa Santos (IAC), ably assisted by Sandra Andrews (ESOC) and Lindsay Simpson (RGO). The local organisers put in a great deal of hard work behind the scenes to make the whole thing work. The best tribute that we can pay to their efforts is to say that none of the disasters that we imagined could have happened, did happen! We also thank the Patronato Insular de Turismo of the Cabildo of Santa Crus de Tenerife for administrative support. Indirect imaging of accretion disks in binaries....Pages 1-13 Spectrum and polarization of the continuum from accretion disks in active galaxies and quasars....Pages 15-27 Accretion disks in low-mass X-ray binaries....Pages 29-57 Theory and observations of time-dependent accretion disks....Pages 59-75 On the long term activity of pop. I binary systems containing an X-ray pulsar....Pages 77-96 X-ray properties of magnetic cataclysmic variable systems....Pages 97-111 Evolution of magnetic cataclysmic binaries....Pages 113-136 The evolution of magnetic cataclysmic variables....Pages 137-155 Quasi-periodic oscillations in low-mass X-ray binaries....Pages 157-175 Quasi-periodic oscillations....Pages 177-193 The X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei....Pages 195-209 Variability in accreting black holes....Pages 229-241 Rapid X-ray variability in radio-quiet AGN: A probe of the innermost regions of the active nucleus....Pages 243-247 Iron lines from galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources....Pages 249-268 Discrete spectra of accreting compact sources....Pages 269-286 Radio emission from X-ray binaries and the proto-type jets of SS433....Pages 287-301 X-ray observations of the jets in SS433....Pages 303-312 Cygnus X-3....Pages 313-330 More surprises from NGC 4151....Pages 331-338 The promise of high resolution UV spectroscopy for understanding the winds of cataclysmic variable stars....Pages 339-355 BL Lacertae objects: Accretion, jets, and winds....Pages 357-375 X-ray spectral formation in low mass X-ray binaries....Pages 377-387 Continuum features in quasars....Pages 389-406 The soft X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei....Pages 407-414 Edited By K.o. Mason, M.g. Watson, And N.e. White. Includes Bibliographies And Indexes.