These peer-reviewed NIC XV conference proceedings present the latest major advances in nuclear physics, astrophysics, astronomy, cosmochemistry and neutrino physics, which provide the necessary framework for a microscopic understanding of astrophysical processes. The book also discusses future directions and perspectives in the various fields of nuclear astrophysics research. In addition, it also includes a limited number of section of more general interest on double beta decay and dark matter.

REFLECTIONS ON SPACETIME - FOUNDATIONS, PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY During the academic year 1992/93, an interdisciplinary research group constituted itself at the Zentrum fUr interdisziplinare Forschung (ZiF) in Bielefeld, Germany, under the title 'Semantical Aspects of Spacetime Theories', in which philosophers and physicists worked on topics in the interpretation and history of relativity theory. The present issue consists of contributions resulting from material presented and discussed in the group during the course of that year. The scope of the papers ranges from rather specialised issues arising from general relativity such as the problem of referential indeterminacy, to foundational questions regarding spacetime in the work of Carnap, Weyl and Hilbert. It is well known that the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) admits spacetime models which are 'exotic' in the sense that observers could travel into their own past. This poses a number of problems for the physical interpretation of GTR which are also relevant in the philosophy of spacetime. It is not enough to exclude these exotic models simply by stating that we live in a non-exotic universe, because it might be possible to "operate time machines" by actively changing the topology of the future part of spacetime. In his contribution, Earman first reviews the attempts of physicists to prove "chronology protection theorems" (CPTs) which exclude the operation of time machines under reasonable assumptions.

This book delves into finite mathematics and its application in physics, particularly quantum theory. It is shown that quantum theory based on finite mathematics is more general than standard quantum theory, whilst finite mathematics is itself more general than standard mathematics.As a consequence, the mathematics describing nature at the most fundamental level involves only a finite number of numbers while the notions of limit, infinite/infinitesimal and continuity are needed only in calculations that describe nature approximately. It is also shown that the concepts of particle and antiparticle are likewise approximate notions, valid only in special situations, and that the electric charge and baryon- and lepton quantum numbers can be only approximately conserved.

This book provides an introduction to the theory of relativity and the mathematics used in its processes. Three elements of the book make it stand apart from previously published books on the theory of relativity.
First, the book starts at a lower mathematical level than standard books with tensor calculus of sufficient maturity to make it possible to give detailed calculations of relativistic predictions of practical experiments. Self-contained introductions are given, for example vector calculus, differential calculus and integrations. Second, in-between calculations have been included, making it possible for the non-technical reader to follow step-by-step calculations. Thirdly, the conceptual development is gradual and rigorous in order to provide the inexperienced reader with a philosophically satisfying understanding of the theory.
The goal of this book is to provide the reader with a sound conceptual understanding of both the special and general theories of relativity, and gain an insight into how the mathematics of the theory can be utilized to calculate relativistic effects.

These documents do nothing less than bear witness to one of the most dramatic changes in the foundations of science. The book has three sections that cover general relativity, epistemological issues, and quantum mechanics. This fascinating work will be a vital text for historians and philosophers of physics, as well as researchers in related physical theories.

A spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and Coltrane More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane put physics and geometry at the core of his music. Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander follows suit, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe. Following the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics-a list including Pythagoras, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and Rakim -- The Jazz of Physics reveals that the ancient poetic idea of the "Music of the Spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics. The Jazz of Physics will fascinate and inspire anyone interested in the mysteries of our universe, music, and life itself.

The Golden Oldies series of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation reprints important papers in general relativity theory that were published 30 or more years ago and are either hard to get hold of, or were originally printed in a language other than English. They play a key part in making these important papers readily accessible today, in the language that has now become the lingua franca of scientific publication. The value of this reprinting is enhanced by an accompanying editorial note for each paper, which briefly explains the significance of the work and where it has subsequently led to, together with a biographical note about the author or authors. This volume presents a selection of 14 rarities among the Golden Oldies grouped in the three categories "Basic results in differential geometry and general relativity," "Discussion of physical effects" and "Basic exact solutions and their interpretation." Researchers in the field will appreciate having these important papers collected in one book for the first time. Reprinted from the journal General Relativity and Gravitation.

This contributed volume explores the renaissance of general relativity after World War II, when it transformed from a marginal theory into a cornerstone of modern physics. Chapters explore key historical processes related to the theory of general relativity, in addition to presenting a thorough treatment of the relevant science behind these episodes. A broad historiographical framework is introduced first, thus providing the broad context in which the given computational approaches and case studies occurred. Written by an international and interdisciplinary group of expert authors, these chapters will bring readers to a more complete understanding of Einstein's theory. Specific topics include: Social and citation networks The Fock-Infeld dispute Wheeler's turn to gravitation theory The position of general relativity in theories of fundamental interactions The pursuit of a quantum theory of gravity The emergence of dark matter in relation to cosmological models Institutional frameworks for gravitational wave search in Europe The Renaissance of General Relativity in Context is ideal for historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science. Students and researchers in physics will also be interested in the topics explored.

Special and General Relativity are concisely developed together with essential aspects of nuclear and particle physics. Problem sets are provided for many chapters, making the book ideal for a course on the physics of white dwarf and neutron star interiors. Norman K. Glendenning is Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Nuclear Science Division, Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of numerous books.

The De Gruyter Studies in Mathematical Physics are devoted to the publication of monographs and high-level texts in mathematical physics. They cover topics and methods in fields of current interest, with an emphasis on didactical presentation. The series will enable readers to understand, apply and develop further, with sufficient rigor, mathematical methods to given problems in physics. For this reason, works with a few authors are preferred over edited volumes. The works in this series are aimed at advanced students and researchers in mathematical and theoretical physics. They can also serve as secondary reading for lectures and seminars at advanced levels.

This book serves as a textbook for senior undergraduate students who are learning the subject of general relativity and gravitational waves for the first time. Both authors have been teaching the course in various forms for a few decades and have designed the book as a one stop book at basic level including derivations and exercises. A spectacular prediction of general relativity is gravitational waves. Gravitational waves were first detected by the LIGO detectors in 2015, hundred years after their prediction. Both authors are part of the LIGO Science Collaboration and were authors on the discovery paper. Therefore, a strong motivation for this book is to provide the essential concepts of general relativity theory and gravitational waves with their modern applications to students and to researchers who are new to the multi-disciplinary field of gravitational wave astronomy. One of the advanced topics covered in this book is the fundamentals of gravitational wave data analysis, filling a gap in textbooks on general relativity. The topic blends smoothly with other chapters in the book not only because of the common area of research, but it uses similar differential geometric and algebraic tools that are used in general relativity.

Physicists are pondering on the possibility of simulating black holes in the laboratory by means of various "analog models". These analog models, typically based on condensed matter physics, can be used to help us understand general relativity (Einstein's gravity); conversely, abstract techniques developed in general relativity can sometimes be used to help us understand certain aspects of condensed matter physics. This book contains 13 chapters - written by experts in general relativity, particle physics, and condensed matter physics - that explore various aspects of this two-way traffic.

This book is an elaboration of lecture notes for the graduate course on General Rela tivity given by the author at Boston University in the spring semester of 1972. It is an introduction to the subject only, as the time available for the course was limited. The author of an introduction to General Relativity is faced from the beginning with the difficult task of choosing which material to include. A general criterion as sisting in this choice is provided by the didactic character of the book: Those chapters have to be included in priority, which will be most useful to the reader in enabling him to understand the methods used in General Relativity, the results obtained so far and possibly the problems still to be solved. This criterion is not sufficient to ensure a unique choice. General Relativity has developed to such a degree, that it is impossible to include in an introductory textbook of a reasonable length even a very condensed treatment of all important problems which have been discussed until now and the author is obliged to decide, in a more or less subjective manner, which of the more recent developments to omit. The following lines indicate by means of some examples the kind of choice made in this book."

Our esteemed colleague C. V. Vishveshwara, popularly known as Vishu, turned sixty on 6th March 1998. His colleagues and well wishers felt that it would be appropriate to celebrate the occasion by bringing out a volume in his honour. Those of us who have had the good fortune to know Vishu, know that he is unique, in a class by himself. Having been given the privilege to be the volume's editors, we felt that we should attempt something different in this endeavour. Vishu is one of the well known relativists from India whose pioneer ing contributions to the studies of black holes is universally recognised. He was a student of Charles Misner. His Ph. D. thesis on the stability of the Schwarzschild black hole, coordinate invariant characterisation of the sta tionary limit and event horizon for Kerr black holes and subsequent seminal work on quasi-normal modes of black holes have passed on to become the starting points for detailed mathematical investigations on the nature of black holes. He later worked on other aspects related to black holes and compact objects. Many of these topics have matured over the last thirty years. New facets have also developed and become current areas of vigorous research interest. No longer are black holes, ultracompact objects or event horizons mere idealisations of mathematical physicists but concrete entities that astrophysicists detect, measure and look for. Astrophysical evidence is mounting up steadily for black holes."

This book evolved out of some one hundred lectures given by twenty experts at a special instructional conference sponsored by the University Grants Commis sion, India. It is pedagogical in style and self-contained in several interrelated areas of physics which have become extremely important in present-day theoretical research. The articles begin with an introduction to general relativity and cosmology as well as particle physics and quantum field theory. This is followed by reviews of the standard gauge models of high-energy physics, renormalization group and grand unified theories. The concluding parts of the book comprise discussions in current research topics such as problems of the early universe, quantum cosmology and the new directions towards a unification of gravitation with other forces. In addition, special concise treatments of mathematical topics of direct relevance are also included. The content of the book was carefully worked out for the mutual education of students and research workers in general relativity and particle physics. This ambitious programe consequently necessitated the involvement of a number of different authors. However, care has been taken to ensure that the material meshes into a unified, cogent and readable book. We hope that the book will serve to initiate and guide a student in these different areas of investigation starting from first principles and leading to the exciting current research problems of an interdisciplinary nature in the context of the origin and structure of the universe."

In this thesis we discuss the construction of an effective field theory (EFT) for non-relativistic Majorana fermions, show how to use it to calculate observables in a thermal medium, and derive the effects of these thermal particles on the CP asymmetry. The methods described in this thesis allow a systematic and effective description of the non-relativistic dynamics of a heavy Majorana fermion at finite temperature. The CP asymmetry is studied for hierarchical and nearly degenerate heavy-neutrino masses and the analysis includes the treatment of lepton-flavor effects. Heavy Majorana neutrinos are involved in many scenarios of physics beyond the standard model and, in the leptogenesis framework, they are at the root of the baryon asymmetry in the Universe. Besides simplifying exist in g results, the EFT approach provides useful tools for addressing even more involved observables. Indeed, taken together, the approach and the material presented here represent an important step toward a systematic improvement of our knowledge of the CP asymmetry in heavy-neutrino decays at finite temperature.

Measuring the masses of galaxies as a function of redshift is perhaps one of the most challenging open issues in current astronomical research. The evolution of the baryonic and dark matter components of galaxies is not only a critical test of the hierarchical formation paradigm, but ultimately also provides new clues on the complex interplay between star formation, the cooling and heating of gas and galaxy merging processes.This book reviews current techniques to measure the baryonic (stellar) and dark masses of nearby galaxies, and focusses on ongoing attempts to measure these same quantities in galaxies at higher and higher redshifts. It also gives room to future perspectives, with special emphasis on new survey projects and satellite missions.

By his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein has provked a revolution of thought in physical science. The aim of this book is to give an account of Einstein's work without introducing anything very technical in the way of mathematics, physics, or philosophy.

By his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein has provoked a revolution of thought in physical science. The aim of this book is to give an account of Einstein's work without introducing anything very technical in the way of mathematics, physics, or philosophy.

This volume presents a selection of articles based on inspiring lectures held at the "Capri" Advanced Summer School, an original event conceived and promoted by Leonida Antonio Gizzi and Ralph Assmann that focuses on novel schemes for plasma-based particle acceleration and radiation sources, and which brings together researchers from the conventional accelerator community and from the high-intensity laser-matter interaction research fields. Training in these fields is highly relevant for ultra-intense lasers and applications, which have enjoyed dramatic growth following the development of major European infrastructures like the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) and the EuPRAXIA project. The articles preserve the tutorial character of the lectures and reflect the latest advances in their respective fields. The volume is mainly intended for PhD students and young researchers getting started in this area, but also for scientists from other fields who are interested in the latest developments. The content will also appeal to radiobiologists and medical physicists, as it includes contributions on potential applications of laser-based particle accelerators.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Erice, Italy, May 2-12, 1987

This book is devoted to the Einstein's field equations of general relativity for self-gravitating massive scalar fields. We formulate the initial value problem when the initial data set is a perturbation of an asymptotically flat, spacelike hypersurface in Minkowski spacetime. We then establish the existence of an Einstein development associated with this initial data set, which is proven to be an asymptotically flat and future geodesically complete spacetime.

'The content of the SaulsonaEURO (TM)s book remains valid and offers a versatile introduction to gravitational wave astronomy. The book is appropriate for undergraduate students and can be read by graduate students and researchers who want to be involved in either the theoretical or the experimental traits of the study of gravitational waves.'Contemporary PhysicsLIGO's recent discovery of gravitational waves was headline news around the world. Many people will want to understand more about what a gravitational wave is, how LIGO works, and how LIGO functions as a detector of gravitational waves.This book aims to communicate the basic logic of interferometric gravitational wave detectors to students who are new to the field. It assumes that the reader has a basic knowledge of physics, but no special familiarity with gravitational waves, with general relativity, or with the special techniques of experimental physics. All of the necessary ideas are developed in the book.The first edition was published in 1994. Since the book is aimed at explaining the physical ideas behind the design of LIGO, it stands the test of time. For the second edition, an Epilogue has been added; it brings the treatment of technical details up to date, and provides references that would allow a student to become proficient with today's designs.