Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity

Abstract

A leading physicist delves into relativity and experimental applications Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity offers a Nobel laureate's perspectives on the wealth of data technological developments have brought to expand upon Einstein's theory. Unique in basing relativity on the Principle of Equivalence of Gravitation and Inertia over Riemannian geometry, this book explores relativity experiments and observational cosmology to provide a sound foundation upon which analyses can be made. Covering special and general relativity, tensor analysis, gravitation, curvature, and more, this book provides an engaging, insightful introduction to the forces that shape the universe.

Microscopic formulation of black holes in string theory

“…Let us briefly review some general properties of black holes [6,7,8,9,10]. Black holes are objects which result as end points of gravitational collapse of matter.…”

“…There are many singular classical solutions of general relativity (for standard textbooks on classical general relativity, see, e.g., [6,7,8,9,10]), including the Schwarzschild black hole and the Big Bang model of cosmology. Black holes and their higher dimensional analogues (black branes) also appear as solutions of low energy string theory.…”

The quark gluon plasma equation of state and the expansion of the early Universe

“…We believe that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic [9]. This statement implies that the space-time can be parametrized by the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric which, inserted into the Einstein equations yield the Friedmann equations [9].…”

“…This statement implies that the space-time can be parametrized by the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric which, inserted into the Einstein equations yield the Friedmann equations [9]. From these latter we can derive the following time evolution equation [2,3,11]:…”

“…In [8] the authors have considered different EOS for the QGP. They computed the energy-momentum tensor, performed a Fourier transform from the configuration to the momentum space and then, using a textbook formula from [9], computed the wave spectrum, i.e., the energy density radiated in gravitational waves as a function of the wave frequency. Different EOS yield different spectra and the difference is larger for higher frequencies ( ν > 10 −9 Hz).…”