Canonical gravity and applications

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Maurizio Gasperini

<p>This reference textbook is an up-to-date and self-contained introduction to the theory of gravitational interactions. The first part of the book follows the traditional presentation of general relativity as a geometric theory of the macroscopic gravitational field. A second, advanced part then discusses the deep analogies (and differences) between a geometric theory of gravity and the gauge theories of the other fundamental interactions. This fills a gap which is present in the context of the traditional approach to general relativity, and which usually makes students puzzled about the role of gravity. The necessary notions of differential geometry are reduced to the minimum, leaving more room for those aspects of gravitational physics of current phenomenological and theoretical interest, such as the properties of gravitational waves, the gravitational interactions of spinors, and the supersymmetric and higher-dimensional generalization of the Einstein equations. Theory of Gravitational Interactions will be of particular value to undergraduate students pursuing a theoretical or astroparticle curriculum. It can also be used by those teaching related subjects, by PhD students and young researchers working in different scientific sectors but wishing to enlarge their spectrum of interests, and, in general, by all scholars interested in the modern aspects and problems of gravitational interaction.</p>

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A.J. Leggett

This book aims to give the non-specialist reader a general overview of what physicists think they do and do not know in some representative frontier areas of contemporary physics. It focuses on the fundamental problems at the heart of the subject, and emphasizes the provisional nature of our present understanding of things.

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John C. Mather and John Boslough

In 1990 and 1992, a NASA-led team of scientists from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) project changed the way we view the universe. They showed that microwave radiation that fills the universe has an exquisite perfection that proves it came from the Big Bang itself. Even more spectacularly, they found tiny variations in its brightness that come from quantum sound waves in that great explosion, primordial seeds that would nucleate the growth of galaxies and make our own existence possible. Their discoveries drew standing ovations from scientists and made headlines around the world. In this no-holds-barred account, COBE's Project Scientist and originator John C. Mather and science writer John Boslough furnish intimate and startling details. They tell of the discovery of the cosmic background radiation and of the subsequent fifteen-year struggle to design, build, and launch the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. An eye-opening, riveting account with rare narrative verve, The Very First Light tells the story of COBE from start to finish, including an unwelcome controversy when one team member breached the project's publication policy and stepped into the limelight alone.

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Joseph Silk

"Archeology is the science that probes the past few thousand years. Geology takes us back two or even three billion years. Beyond that is the realm of cosmology: the study of the beginnings of the Universe around us.". So begins a journey deep into the origins of time, the birth of galaxies, and all the way to the farthest realm, beyond the end of it all. The tour starts at the beginning, the very early Universe - with Silk's masterful account of the Big Bang Theory, culminating in the 1965 discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. "This whisper of creation is the greatly faded relic of the primordial fireball..."