A Random Walk In Relativity And Cosmology

This volume is a collection of essays written in honour of Professor P.C. Vaidya and Professor A.K. Raychaudhuri. These two distinguished scientists are well-known for their important contributions to general relativity and cosmology, and are widely respected as inspiring teachers. Topics in general relativity fall broadly into two types namely the study of gravitational effects around local objects and the investigation of the global structure of spacetime. The Vaidya metric is an example of the former while the Raychaudhuri equation belongs to the latter category. Appropriately, the articles in this volume highlight problems of both kinds and are written by experts in the respective fields. These essays span a wide spectrum of diverse areas from abstract concepts to observational techniques within the framework of relativity, cosmology and astrophysics. Some of them represent original results of recent research, while others are broad-based state of the art reviews.

From the reviews: Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969 and it has already become one of the fundamental publications in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and neighbouring sciences. It is the most important English-language abstracting journal in the mentioned branches. ... The abstracts are classified under more than hundred subject categories, thus permitting a quick survey of the whole extended material. The AAA is a valuable and important publication for all students and scientists working in the fields of astronomy and related sciences. As such it represents a necessary ingredient of any astronomical library all over the world." Space Science Reviews #1 "Dividing the whole field plus related subjects into 108 categories, each work is numbered and most are accompanied by brief abstracts. Fairly comprehensive cross-referencing links relevant papers to more than one category, and exhaustive author and subject indices are to be found at the back, making the catalogues easy to use. The series appears to be so complete in its coverage and always less than a year out of date that I shall certainly have to make a little more space on those shelves for future volumes." The Observatory Magazine #1

Cosmology has been transformed by dramatic progress in high-precision observations and theoretical modelling. This book surveys key developments and open issues for graduate students and researchers. Using a relativistic geometric approach, it focuses on the general concepts and relations that underpin the standard model of the Universe. Part I covers foundations of relativistic cosmology whilst Part II develops the dynamical and observational relations for all models of the Universe based on general relativity. Part III focuses on the standard model of cosmology, including inflation, dark matter, dark energy, perturbation theory, the cosmic microwave background, structure formation and gravitational lensing. It also examines modified gravity and inhomogeneity as possible alternatives to dark energy. Anisotropic and inhomogeneous models are described in Part IV, and Part V reviews deeper issues, such as quantum cosmology, the start of the universe and the multiverse proposal. Colour versions of some figures are available at www.cambridge.org/9780521381154.

This 1985 book comprises essays reviewing areas of the applications of gravity theory to which Professor Bonnor had contributed. The influence of his work in two important fields of interest to astonomers, physicists and mathematicians, galaxy formation and the study of axisymmetric solutions in general relativity, is well recognised.

The inaugural volume of the Pittsburgh-Konstanz series, devoted to the work of philosopher Adolf GrŸnbaum, encompasses the philosophical problems of space, time, and cosmology, the nature of scientific methodology, and the foundations of psychoanalysis.