This authoritative volume is the first to present a comprehensive and up-to-date review of our new understanding of accretion disks around black holes. Interest in black hole accretion disks has undergone a renaissance in recent years because of developments in three complementary areas: theoretical modeling of relativistic plasmas, numerical simulations with supercomputers, and observational tests now possible using new observatories such as the Japanese X-ray satellite, ASCAR. This volume presents review papers on all these topics from leading world authorities who gathered at an...