The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology: A Survey to Celebrate the 65th Birthday of Dennis Sciama

by George Ellis, Antonio Lanza, John Miller

Overview

A special role in the study of general relativity and cosmology has been played by the influential research groups led by Dennis Sciama. In April 1992 many of his ex-students and collaborators assembled to review the developments that have taken place during his career to date. The topics covered include fundamental questions in general relativity and cosmology, black holes, active galactic nuclei, galactic structure, dark matter and large scale structure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521021081
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/22/2005
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.65(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Exact and inexact solutions of the Einstein field equations G. F. R. Ellis; 2. Inertial forces in general relativity M. A. Abramovicz; 3. Relativistic radiation hydrodynamics A. M. Anile and V. Romano; 4. Relativistic gravitational collapse J. Miller; 5. The cosmic censorship hypothesis C. J. S. Clarke; 6. The Kerr metric: a gateway to the roots of gravity? F. de Felice; 7. Galactic astronomy since 1950 J. J. Binney; 8. Galaxy distribution functions W. C. Saslow; 9. Nonlinear galaxy clustering B. J. T. Jones; 10. Quasars: progress and prospects M. J. Rees; 11. Decaying neutrinos in astronomy and cosmology D. W. Sciama; 12. Cosmological principles J. D. Barrow; 13. Anisotropic and inhomogeneous cosmologies M. A. H. MacCallum; 14. Mach's principle and isotropic singularities P. K. Tod; 15. Implications of superconductivity in cosmic string theory B. Carter; 16. The formation and evaporation of primordial black holes B. J. Carr; 17. Evaporation of two dimensional black holes S. W. Hawking; 18. Topology and topology change in general relativity G. W. Gibbons; 19. Decoherence of the cluttered quantum vacuum D. J. Raine; 20. Quantum nonlocality and complex reality R. Penrose; 21. The different levels of connections between science and objective reality N. Dallaporta.

Editorial Reviews

"Sciama's collaborators, students, and ‘grandstudents' provide interesting reviews and original essays—20 in all—on subjects ranging from galactic astronomy to quasars, from quantum measurement theory to superconducting strings...snapshots of an interesting moment in the development of theoretical cosmology." Science, Aaugust 5, 1994

"Ellis...shows how the revival of general relativity and cosmology has been influenced by Sciama's research groups at Cambridge, Oxford, and Tieste. He gives a short summary of Sciama's research, his passion for physics and for understanding the universe, and his care for students...Ellis emphasizes the relevance of exact solutions in gravitation and how the solutions may give interesting insights when their global properties are studied." Enric Verdaguer, Mathematical Reviews grtavitations

From the Publisher