Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology - A Survey to Celebrate the 65th Birthday of Dennis Sciama

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.Table of ContentIntroduction; 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.Review Quote'Libraries should make sure they have a copy, so that the younger generation are able to learn something about the achievements of a man who has probably strongly influenced their research.' The ObservatoryRecords the review meeting celebrating Dennis Sciama's 65th birthday and covers fundamental questions in cosmology.