After three decades of intense research in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, the time was ripe to summarize basic knowledge on X-ray and gamma-ray spectroscopy for interested students and researchers ready to become involved in new high-energy missions. This volume exposes both the scientific basics and modern methods of high-energy spectroscopic astrophysics. The emphasis is on physical principles and observing methods rather than a discussion of particular classes of high-energy objects, but many examples and new results are included in the three chapters as well.

Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy of Astrophysical Plasmas (Steven M. Kahn): Classical and Quantum Radiation Theory.- The Structure of Multi-Electron Atoms.- Electron-Ion Collisional Processes.- Discrete Line Diagnostics.- Concluding Remarks.- Instruments for Nuclear Astrophysics (Peter von Ballmoos): Introduction.- Interaction of High-Energy Photons with Matter.- Detectors.- The Instruments for Nuclear Astronomy.- Hard X-Ray and Gamma Ray Spectroscopy (Rashid Sunyaev and Sergey Sazonov): Fundamentals of Compton Scattering.- Comptonization in Infinite Homogeneous Media.- Comptonization in Bounded Plasma Clouds.- Interaction of X-Rays with Partially Ionized Media.- 6.4-keV Fluorescent Emission from Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center.- X-Ray Emission from Supernova 1987A.- Accretion onto Black Holes and Neutron Stars.