James Benford

Following in the footsteps of its popular predecessors, High Power Microwaves, Fourth Edition continues to provide a wide-angle, integrated view of the field of high power microwaves (HPMs). This fourth edition includes significant updates in every chapter as well as a new chapter on High Power Amplifiers. Written by a range of experimentalists, theorists, and applied theorists, the book offers complementary perspectives on different source types. The authors address:How HPM relates historically and technically to the conventional microwave fieldThe possible applications for HPM and the key criteria that HPM devices have to meet in order to be appliedHow high power sources work, including their performance capabilities and limitationsThe broad fundamental issues to be addressed in the future for a wide variety of source typesThe book is accessible to several audiences. Researchers currently in the field can widen their understanding of HPM. Present or potential users of microwaves will discover the advantages of the dramatically higher power levels that are being made available. Newcomers to the field can pursue further research. Decision makers in direct energy acquisition and related fields, such as radar, communications, and high-energy physics, can see how developments in HPM will affect them. Key FeaturesDiscusses the key criteria that must be fulfilled for emerging applications of HPMs in addition to the HPM formulary of practical equations for everyday workDescribes the broad fundamental issues for each class of HPM sources and clarifies HPM capabilities and limitations on performanceUses a format suitable for classroom instruction with updated problems in each chapter alongside references and guidance to the literature for readers seeking more details. Solutions to the problems are available at [email protected].

Starship Century is an anthology by authors from both science and fiction writing backgrounds, illustrating some of the tech and ideology behind the illustrious goal of traveling to another star within the next century. Edited by Gregory Benford, New York Times bestselling science fiction author, and James Benford, leading expert on space propulsion, Starship Century includes science fiction by Neal Stephenson, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, John Cramer, Richard A. Lovett, and Allen Steele, as well as scientific articles by Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson, Robert Zubrin, Peter Schwartz, Martin Rees, Ian Crawford, James Benford, Geoffrey Landis, Paul Davies and Adam Crowl. This groundbreaking anthology of science and science fiction is based on findings and discussions of the 100-Year Starship Symposium held in 2011. In it, top scientists tackle the opportunities for our long-term future in space. Alongside them, science fiction authors explore the dream and the possibilities.

This book covers all the major types of microwave sources, their distinguishing features, the primary research issues and the fundamental limits on performance. The book traces the technological trends that form the historical foundations of the field and compares the capabilities of HPM to those of conventional microwaves. It is also a text of reference for research into fast photoconducting switching, electromagnetic missiles and pulse compression.