Astronomical Polarimetry
Astronomical Polarimetry
复制标题
DOI：
10.1088/0957-0233/8/2/018
复制
发表时间：
1997
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Roderick Willstrop
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Roderick Willstrop
这位审稿人必须首先声明一个兴趣：我的第一篇发表的论文，与该部门的一位高级成员一起撰写，描述了对阿伦德-罗兰彗星（1957年）光的偏振的测量。回顾这篇论文，我可以看到，如果当时有这本书，我们可能会以更令人信服的方式写下结果。然而，正是那颗明亮的彗星的短暂出现，使我们的设备变得简单。我和作者也一起听过几次天文学讲座，我发现他用母语荷兰语做笔记，尽管讲师用英语发言;后来我们在南非观察时再次见面。丁伯根不仅精通两种语言，而且在光学和射电天文学方面也同样精通。他对旋光测量的兴趣可以追溯到25年以上;这本书是从莱顿天文台的高级本科课程发展而来的。其目的是鼓励了解偏振测量，并在任何波长的天体物理观测中适当增加其使用，从无线电到红外线和光学到紫外线和x射线。经过简短的介绍，这解释了安排的其他章节，有一个描述偏振辐射，介绍斯托克斯参数和庞加莱球，其次是讨论新的斯托克斯参数后，辐射已被修改的偏振，去偏振或延迟组件的检测器系统。当信号的相位相关时，必须使用琼斯矩阵。关于偏振测量仪器原理的一章讨论了位置角和偏振度的零点的确定，以及射电望远镜旁瓣和地面反射引起的误差。文中还提到了在简单光度测量中，如果辐射是偏振的，可能引起的误差。下一章将介绍用于光学、射电和其他光谱区域的实用偏振计。最后一章介绍了最近的一些调查的例子，这些调查更多地是根据仪器的质量而不是天文学来选择的。八页的建议练习，选择来说明旋光测量的特定方面，后面是两页非常简洁的提示。有11页的参考文献和4页的索引。作者在序言中建议快速阅读这本书;要做到这一点，你可能需要几杯咖啡的帮助。这本书充满了很好的坚实的材料，许多解释只能在参考文献中找到。这使得这本书的篇幅和成本都保持在适度的水平，为此作者应该受到祝贺。他让自己的幽默感在许多地方活跃了文本，如在标题页上，在表格式的历史摘要中，以及在伽马射线偏振仪上，但是要找到这些简短的段落，你必须让你的图书管理员买一份副本，或者，更好的是，自己买一份。
This reviewer must start by declaring an interest: my first published paper, written with a senior member of the Department, described measurements of the polarization of the light of Comet Arend - Roland (1957). Looking back on that paper, I can see that we might have written up the results in a more convincing manner if this book had been available at that time. It was the brief appearance of that bright comet, however, that was responsible for the simplicity of our equipment. The author and I have also sat through a few astronomical lectures together, at which I found he was taking notes in his mother tongue of Dutch although the lecturer was speaking in English; and later we met again when observing in South Africa. Not only is Tinbergen fully bilingual, but he is also equally at home in optical and radio astronomy. His interest in polarimetry goes back more than 25 years; this book has developed from a senior undergraduate course on the subject given at Leiden Observatory. The aim is to encourage an understanding of polarimetry, and increase its use whenever this is appropriate in astrophysical observations at any wavelength, from radio through infra-red and optical to ultra-violet and x-rays. After a short introduction, which explains the arrangement of the other chapters, there is a description of polarized radiation, introducing the Stokes parameters and the Poincaré sphere, followed by a discussion of the new Stokes parameters after radiation has been modified by a polarizing, depolarizing or retarding component of a detector system. When the phase of a signal is relevant, Jones matrices must be used instead. A chapter on the principles of instruments for polarimetry includes discussions of the determination of the zero points of both the position angle and degree of polarization, and of the errors which arise from the sidelobes of radio telescopes and ground reflections. The errors which can be caused in simple photometry if the radiation is polarized are also mentioned. Practical polarimeters for optical and for a radio and other spectral regions are described in the following chapter. Some examples of recent investigations, chosen more for the quality of the instrumentation than for the astronomy, are presented in the last chapter. Eight pages of suggested exercises, chosen to illustrate particular aspects of polarimetry, are followed by two very terse pages of hints. There are 11 pages of references, and four pages of index. The author, in his preface, recommends reading the book quickly; to do this you may need the help of some cups of coffee. The book is full of good solid material, and many explanations are to be found only in the references. This has kept the size, and cost, of the book modest, for which the author is to be congratulated. He has allowed his sense of humour to enliven the text in a number of places, as on the title page, in the tabular historical summary, and on gamma-ray polarimetry, but to find these short passages you will have to ask your librarian to buy a copy, or, better still, buy your own.