Planck Scale Effects In Astrophysics And Cosmology

This volume is composed of extensive and detailed notes from the lectures given at the 40th Karpacz Winter School. This school focussed on quantum gravity phenomenology with emphasis on its relation to observational astrophysics and cosmology. These notes have been carefully edited with the aim to give advanced students and young researchers a balanced and accessible introduction to a rather heavily mathematical subject.

This volume is composed of extensive and detailed notes from the lectures given at the 40th Karpacz Winter School. This school focussed on quantum gravity phenomenology with emphasis on its relation to observational astrophysics and cosmology. These notes have been carefully edited with the aim to give advanced students and young researchers a balanced and accessible introduction to a rather heavily mathematical subject.

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Although gravity is the dominant force of nature at large distances (from intermediate scales to the Hubble length), it is the weakest of forces in particle physics, though it is believed to become important again at very short scales (the Planck length). The conditions created in particle accelerators are similar to those at the time of the early universe. While particle physics offers insight to early universe physics, there is a need to understand gravity at extremes of large and short distances to further understand cosmology and the development of the universe. Gravitation: From the Hubble Length to the Planck Length fulfills this need by providing an overview of relativistic astrophysics, early universe physics, cosmology, and their interface with particle physics. Written by international experts, this reference presents up-to-date information on classical relativity, astrophysics, and theoretical and experimental particle physics. The introduction sets the scene and provides a context for the remaining chapters. Chapters cover an extensive array of topics, from refined experimental techniques in gravitational physics to cosmology and the quantum frontier. The book concludes with a discussion of the connection among particles, fields, strings, and branes. This compilation shows how gravity plays a fundamental role in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology by exploring domains from the microscopic, such as black holes, to superclusters of galaxies that form the large-scale texture of the present-day cosmos. Moreover, with its theoretical and experimental focus on the foundations of gravity, Gravitation proves to be an invaluable resource for current and future research.

In recent years there has been a steadily increasing cross-fertilization between cosmology and particle physics, on both the theoretical and experimental levels. Particle physics has provided new experimental data from the big accelerators in operation, and data from space satellites are accumulating rapidly. Cosmology is still one of the best laboratories for testing particle theory. The present work discusses such matters in the context of inflation, strings, dark matter, neutrinos and gravitational wave physics in the very early universe, field theory at the Planck scale, and high energy physics. A particular emphasis has been placed on a new topology for spatial infinity, on the relation between temperature and gravitational potential, a canonical formulation of general relativity, the neutrino mass, spin in the early universe, the measurement of gravity in the 10--100 m range, galaxy--galaxy and cluster--cluster correlation, black holes, string theory and string/string duality. The work also presents a beautiful review of high energy elementary particle physics, treating the meaning, status and perspectives of unification and standard model gauge couplings.

Jean-Pierre Vigier continually labeled one of les heretiques de la science, l’eternel resistant et le patriarche is yet a pillar of modern physics and mathematics, with one leg firmly planted in theory and the other in empiricism spanning a career of nearly 60 years with a publication vitae quickly approaching 400! He wrote of his mentor Louis de Broglie “Great physicists fight great battles”, which perhaps applies even more so to 1 Jean-Pierre Vigier himself . If fortune allows a visit to Paris, reported to be the city of love, and certainly one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the world; one has been treated to a visual and cultural feast. For example a leisurely stroll from the Musee du Louvre along the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe would instill even the least creative soul with the entelechies of a poets muse. It is perhaps open to theoretical interpretation, but if causal conditions have allowed one to be a physicist, visiting Paris, one may have taken opportunity to visit the portion of the old Latin quarter in place Jussieu where Pierre et Marie Curie Universite, reported to be ‘the best university in France’, is stationed.