The past forty years have been a time of spectacular
development in the study of general relativity and cosmology. A
special role in this has been played by the influential research
groups led by Dennis Sciama in Cambridge, Oxford, and Trieste. In
April 1992 many of his ex-students and collaborators came to
Trieste where he is currently Professor for a review meeting to
celebrate his 65th birthday. This book consists of written versions
of the talks presented which, taken together, comprise an
authoritative overview of developments which 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.
目錄:
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.