Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Author Addresses
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Exact and inexact solutions of the Einstein field equations
- 3 Inertial forces in general relativity
- 4 Relativistic radiation hydrodynamics: a covariant theory of flux-limiters
- 5 Relativistic gravitational collapse
- 6 The cosmic censorship hypothesis
- 7 The Kerr metric: a gateway to the roots of gravity?
- 8 Galactic astronomy since 1950
- 9 Galaxy distribution functions
- 10 Nonlinear galaxy clustering
- 11 Quasars: progress and prospects
- 12 Decaying neutrinos in astronomy and cosmology
- 13 Cosmological principles
- 14 Anisotropic and inhomogeneous cosmologies
- 15 Mach's principle and isotropic singularities
- 16 Implications of superconductivity in cosmic string theory
- 17 The formation and evaporation of primordial black holes
- 18 Evaporation of two dimensional black holes
- 19 Topology and topology change in general relativity
- 20 Decoherence of the cluttered quantum vacuum
- 21 Quantum non-locality and complex reality
- 22 The different levels of connections between science and objective reality
19 - Topology and topology change in general relativity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Author Addresses
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Exact and inexact solutions of the Einstein field equations
- 3 Inertial forces in general relativity
- 4 Relativistic radiation hydrodynamics: a covariant theory of flux-limiters
- 5 Relativistic gravitational collapse
- 6 The cosmic censorship hypothesis
- 7 The Kerr metric: a gateway to the roots of gravity?
- 8 Galactic astronomy since 1950
- 9 Galaxy distribution functions
- 10 Nonlinear galaxy clustering
- 11 Quasars: progress and prospects
- 12 Decaying neutrinos in astronomy and cosmology
- 13 Cosmological principles
- 14 Anisotropic and inhomogeneous cosmologies
- 15 Mach's principle and isotropic singularities
- 16 Implications of superconductivity in cosmic string theory
- 17 The formation and evaporation of primordial black holes
- 18 Evaporation of two dimensional black holes
- 19 Topology and topology change in general relativity
- 20 Decoherence of the cluttered quantum vacuum
- 21 Quantum non-locality and complex reality
- 22 The different levels of connections between science and objective reality
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The organisers have asked us to review the progress of some aspect of general relativity and cosmology in which they have a particular interest and to introduce their remarks by describing its relation to their interaction with Dennis Sciama. It is a great pleasure for me to do so and also to pay tribute to the inspiration that he, and his style of doing physics, has been to me over the years. In particular I have tried to follow his example by asking simple physical questions and trying to answer them with the simplest appropriate tools available. For that reason in what follows I shall not give extensive mathematical details but refer the reader to the references. Moreover because of the personal nature of the review I have made no attempt to include in those references every paper on the subject, especially where the story is widely known and can be read up in standard textbooks. For the same reason I have perhaps erred in including too many papers of my own.
I became a Research student of Dennis Sciama in October 1969 after being enthralled by his marvelously lucid and exciting Part III lectures on General Relativity. When Dennis left for Oxford a year later I transferred to Stephen Hawking, himself a former student of Dennis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Renaissance of General Relativity and CosmologyA Survey to Celebrate the 65th Birthday of Dennis Sciama, pp. 287 - 299Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993