Proceedings from the 2012 Fourth International Meeting on Gravitation and Cosmology, focusing on accelerated cosmic expansion This volume provides both an update and a review of the state of alternative theories of gravity in connection with the accelerated expansion of the universe issue. Different theoretical proposals exist to explain the acceleration in the cosmic expansion, generating the dark energy issue and opening the possibility to theories of gravity alternative to general relativity. Related issues such as the dark matter problem are also surveyed in order to give the readers profound insight on the subject from different points of view. Comprised of short talks and plenary lectures given by leading experts in the field, some of them with brilliant and historic contributions, the book allows the reader to find readable and referenced surveys in topics like f(R) theories, the dark matter and dark energy issues, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) scenarios, f(T) theories, scalar-tensor theories derived from non-Riemannian geometries, emergent universes, the cosmological constant and other topics of current interest for younger and senior physicists and graduate students. These proceedings are from the Fourth International Meeting on Gravitation and Cosmology, held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, from 20 - 25 May, 2012, was sponsored by ICTP- Trieste, Italy and COECyTJAL-Universidad de Guadalajara, México. This event is a series of scientific meetings started in 2004 in Cuba, focusing on current and selected topics in the fields of gravitation and cosmology.

This book contains contributions from the Spanish Relativity Meeting, ERE 2012, held in Guimaraes, Portugal, September 2012. It features more than 70 papers on a range of topics in general relativity and gravitation, from mathematical cosmology, numerical relativity and black holes to string theory and quantum gravity. Under the title "Progress in Mathematical Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology," ERE 2012 was attended by an exceptional international list of over a hundred participants from the five continents and over forty countries. ERE is organized every year by one of the Spanish or Portuguese groups working in this area and is supported by the Spanish Society of Gravitation and Relativity (SEGRE). This book will be of interest to researchers in mathematics and physics.

In this thesis the author discusses the phenomenology of supersymmetric models by means of experimental data set analysis of the electric dipole moment. There is an evaluation of the elementary processes contributing to the electric dipole moments within R-parity-violating supersymmetry, which call for higher-order perturbative computations. A new method based on linear programming is developed and for the first time the non-trivial parameter space of R-parity violation respecting the constraints from existing experimental data of the electric dipole moment is revealed. As well, the impressive efficiency of the new method in scanning the parameter space of the R-parity-violating sector is effectively demonstrated. This new method makes it possible to extract from the experimental data a more reliable constraint on the R-parity violation.

With his Ph.D. thesis, presented here in the format of a "Springer Theses", Paul Fulda won the 2012 GWIC thesis prize awarded by the Gravitational Wave International Committee. The impact of thermal noise on future gravitational wave detectors depends on the size and shape of the interrogating laser beam. It had been known since 2006 that, in theory, higher-order Laguerre-Gauss modes could reduce thermal noise. Paul Fulda's research brings Laguerre-Gauss modes an enormous step forward. His work includes analytical, numerical and experimental work on table-top setups as well as experiments at the Glasgow 10m prototype interferometer. Using numerical simulations the LG33 mode was selected as the optical mode to be tested. Further research by Paul and his colleagues since then concentrated on this mode. Paul has developed and demonstrated simple and effective methods to create this mode with diffractive optics and successfully demonstrated its compatibility with the essential building blocks of gravitational wave detectors, namely, optical cavities, Michelson interferometers and opto-electronic sensing and control systems. Through this work, Laguerre-Gauss modes for interferometers have been transformed from an essentially unknown entity to a well understood option with an experimental basis.

The presentations at this NASA-hosted Symposium in honor of Mino Freund will touch upon the fields, to which his prolific mind has made significant contributions. These include low temperature physics, cosmology, and nanotechnology with its wide-ranging applicability to material science, neuroscience, Earth sciences and satellite technology. To learn more about Mino’s career you can download the "Tribute" http://multimedia.seti.org/mino/Tribute.pdf which outlines his journey from (i) low-temperature physics and superconductivity at the ETH Zürich to (ii) building one remarkable milliKelvin refrigerator for the US-Japan IRTS mission at UC Berkeley and ISAS in Japan to (iii) a decade in cosmology, to (iv) being on the micro-bolometer team at NASA Goddard for the HAWC instrument on SOFIA, to (v) developing at AFRL the nanotechnology portfolio for the entire Air Force. This was followed by six years at the NASA Ames Research Center, where Mino formulated his far-ahead ideas about swarms of capable nanosats circling the Earth, which have since started to become a reality. He engaged in a broad range of nanotechnology projects, including novel applications in neuroscience well before he himself was struck by the deadly brain tumor.

This course-tested textbook conveys the fundamentals of magnetic fields and relativistic plasma in diffuse cosmic media, with a primary focus on phenomena that have been observed at different wavelengths. Theoretical concepts are addressed wherever necessary, with derivations presented in sufficient detail to be generally accessible. In the first few chapters the authors present an introduction to various astrophysical phenomena related to cosmic magnetism, with scales ranging from molecular clouds in star-forming regions and supernova remnants in the Milky Way, to clusters of galaxies. Later chapters address the role of magnetic fields in the evolution of the interstellar medium, galaxies and galaxy clusters. The book is intended for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in astronomy and physics and will serve as an entry point for those starting their first research projects in the field.

This book provides a chronological introduction to the sciences of astronomy and cosmology based on the reading and analysis of significant selections from classic texts, such as Ptolemy's The Almagest, Kepler's Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, Shapley's Galaxies and Lemaitre's The Primeval Atom. Each chapter begins with a short introduction followed by a reading selection. Carefully crafted study questions draw out key points in the text and focus the reader's attention on the author's methods, analysis, and conclusions. Numerical and observational exercises at the end of each chapter test the reader's ability to understand and apply key concepts from the text. The Heavens and the Earth is the first of four volumes in A Student's Guide Through the Great Physics Texts. This book grew out of a four-semester undergraduate physics curriculum designed to encourage a critical and circumspect approach to natural science, while at the same time preparing students for advanced coursework in physics. This book is particularly suitable as a college-level textbook for students of the natural sciences, history or philosophy. It also serves as a textbook for advanced high-school students, or as a thematically-organized source-book for scholars and motivated lay-readers. In studying the classic scientific texts included herein, the reader will be drawn toward a lifetime of contemplation.

This book is a small but practical summary of how one can and should learn science. The author argues that science cannot be taught but has to be learnt. Based on historical examples he shows that practicing science means putting one's intellect into the understanding of simple questions like what, why, how and when events around you happen. The reader understands that the search for the cause and effect relationship of so called normal happenings is a very provocative experience and learning science leads one to it. This is underpinned by looking at everyday experiences and how they can help any lay-person learn science. The author also explains the methodology of science and discusses an integrated approach to science communication. Finally he elaborates on the influence and role of science in society. The book addresses interested general readers, teachers and science communicators.

This book provides a chronological introduction to the science of motion and rest based on the reading and analysis of significant portions of Galileo's Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, Pascal's Treatise on the Equilibrium of Fluids and the Weight of the Mass of Air, Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, and Einstein's Relativity. Each chapter begins with a short introduction followed by a reading selection. Carefully crafted study questions draw out key points in the text and focus the reader's attention on the author's methods, analysis, and conclusions. Numerical and laboratory exercises at the end of each chapter test the reader's ability to understand and apply key concepts from the text. Space, Time and Motion is the second of four volumes in A Student's Guide through the Great Physics Texts. This book grew out of a four-semester undergraduate physics curriculum designed to encourage a critical and circumspect approach to natural science, while at the same time preparing students for advanced coursework in physics. This book is particularly suitable as a college-level textbook for students of the natural sciences, history or philosophy. It also serves as a textbook for advanced high-school students, or as a thematically-organized source-book for scholars and motivated lay-readers. In studying the classic scientific texts included herein, the reader will be drawn toward a lifetime of contemplation.

Subtlety in Relativity is the only book that has been written after the author's discovery of a new way in which wave phenomena occur-the emission origin of waves. This drastically changes most issues of the old debate over the world being either deterministic or probabilistic. The emission origin of waves is not incompatible with the ideas of quantum theory; rather, this new and novel way in which waves can be generated justifies the use of mathematical and probabilistic methods of quantum theory. However, the emission origin of waves shows that quantum theory is statistically incomplete in, precisely, Einstein's sense. There exists, then, a certain, previously unexplored, conceptual framework underlying the ideas of quantum theory. Whether this is the theory that Einstein and others were looking for then, how this way of thinking is related to the ideas of relativity, and whether this is a relativistic theory in the usual sense of this word are questions this book answers. The book demonstrates how the Doppler effect with acceleration is essential to interpreting astronomical observations. It also offers a detailed and self-sufficient technical background of mathematical ideas of category theory. The book is divided into two parts. The first is less mathematical and more conceptual in its orientation. The second focuses on mathematical ideas needed to implement physical concepts. The book is a great reference for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level students of physics and researchers in physics, astronomy, and cosmology, who will gain a deeper understanding of relativity from it.

This book provides a rather self-contained survey of the construction of Hadamard states for scalar field theories in a large class of notable spacetimes, possessing a (conformal) light-like boundary. The first two sections focus on explaining a few introductory aspects of this topic and on providing the relevant geometric background material. The notions of asymptotically flat spacetimes and of expanding universes with a cosmological horizon are analysed in detail, devoting special attention to the characterization of asymptotic symmetries. In the central part of the book, the quantization of a real scalar field theory on such class of backgrounds is discussed within the framework of algebraic quantum field theory. Subsequently it is explained how it is possible to encode the information of the observables of the theory in a second, ancillary counterpart, which is built directly on the conformal (null) boundary. This procedure, dubbed bulk-to-boundary correspondence, has the net advantage of allowing the identification of a distinguished state for the theory on the boundary, which admits a counterpart in the bulk spacetime which is automatically of Hadamard form. In the last part of the book, some applications of these states are discussed, in particular the construction of the algebra of Wick polynomials. This book is aimed mainly, but not exclusively, at a readership with interest in the mathematical formulation of quantum field theory on curved backgrounds.

"What Bodanis does brilliantly is to give us a feel for Einstein as a person. I don't think I've ever read a book that does this as well . . . Whenever there's a chance for storytelling, Bodanis triumphs." --Popular Science "Fascinating." --Forbes Widely considered the greatest genius of all time, Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos with his general theory of relativity and helped lead us into the atomic age. Yet in the final decades of his life, he was ignored by most working scientists, and his ideas were opposed by even his closest friends. How did this happen? Best-selling biographer David Bodanis traces the arc of Einstein's life--from the skeptical, erratic student to the world's most brilliant physicist to the fallen-from-grace celebrity. An intimate biography in which "theories of the universe morph into theories of life" (Times, London), Einstein's Greatest Mistake reveals what we owe Einstein today--and how much more he might have achieved if not for his all-too-human flaws.

When predictions of Einstein's theory of General Relativity are compared against observations of our Universe, a huge inconsistency is found. The most popular fix for this inconsistency is to "invent" around 94% of the content of the universe: dark matter and dark energy. The dark energy is some exotic substance responsible for the apparent observed acceleration of the Universe. Another fix is to modify the theory of gravity: it is entirely plausible that Einstein's theory of General Relativity breaks down on cosmological scales, just as Newton's theory of gravity breaks down in the extreme gravitational field of the Sun. There are many alternative theories of gravity, each with the aim of describing observations of our Universe where General Relativity fails. Whether it is dark energy or some modified theory of gravity, it is clear that there is some "dark sector" in the Universe. In this thesis the author constructs a unifying framework for understanding the observational impact of general classes of dark sector theories, by formulating equations of state for the dark sector perturbations.

This book is intended as an undergraduate textbook in electrodynamics at basic or advanced level. The objective is to attain a general understanding of the electrodynamic theory and its basic experiments and phenomena in order to form a foundation for further studies in the engineering sciences as well as in modern quantum physics. The outline of the book is obtained from the following principles: •         Base the theory on the concept of force and mutual interaction •         Connect the theory to experiments and observations accessible to the student •         Treat the electric, magnetic and inductive phenomena cohesively with respect to force, energy, dipoles and material •         Present electrodynamics using the same principles as in the preceding mechanics course •         Aim at explaining that theory of relativity is based on the magnetic effect •         Introduce field theory after the basic phenomena have been explored in terms of force Although electrodynamics is described in this book from its 1st principles, prior knowledge of about one semester of university studies in mathematics and physics is required, including vector algebra, integral and differential calculus as well as a course in mechanics, treating Newton’s laws and the energy principle. The target groups are physics and engineering students, as well as professionals in the field, such as high school teachers and employees in the telecom industry. Chemistry and computer science students may also benefit from the book.

Awarded the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize, and with a foreword by thesis supervisor Professor Shardha Jogee at the University of Texas at Austin, this thesis discusses one of the primary outstanding problems in extragalactic astronomy: how galaxies form and evolve. Galaxies consist of two fundamental kinds of structure: rotationally supported disks and spheroidal/triaxial structures supported by random stellar motions. Understanding the balance between these galaxy components is vital to comprehending the relative importance of the different mechanisms (galaxy collisions, gas accretion and internal secular processes) that assemble and shape galaxies. Using panchromatic imaging from some of the largest and deepest space-based galaxy surveys, an empirical census of galaxy structure is made for galaxies at different cosmic epochs and in environments spanning low to extremely high galaxy number densities. An important result of this work is that disk structures are far more prevalent in massive galaxies than previously thought. The associated challenges raised for contemporary theoretical models of galaxy formation are discussed. The method of galaxy structural decomposition is treated thoroughly since it is relevant for future studies of galaxy structure using next-generation facilities, like the James Webb Space Telescope and the ground-based Giant Magellan Telescope with adaptive optics.

The focus of his prize-winning thesis is on observations and modeling of binary millisecond pulsars. But in addition, John Antoniadis covers a wide range of observational measurements of binary compact stars systems and tests of General Relativity, like indirect measurements of gravitational wave emission and posing the most stringent constraints on Scalar-Tensor gravity theories. Among others, he presents a system that hosts the most massive neutron star known to date, which has important ramifications for strong-field gravity and nuclear physics. This impressive work was awarded the Otto-Hahn Medal of the Max-Planck Society and the Best PhD in Gravity, Particle and Atomic physics award by the German Physics Society (DPG).

This thesis addresses two of the central processes which underpin the formation of galaxies: the formation of stars and the injection of energy into the interstellar medium from supernovae, called feedback. In her work Claudia Lagos has completely overhauled the treatment of these processes in simulations of galaxy formation. Her thesis makes two major breakthroughs, and represents the first major steps forward in these areas in more than a decade. Her work has enabled, for the first time, predictions to be made which can be compared against new observations which probe the neutral gas content of galaxies, opening up a completely novel way to constrain the models. The treatment of feedback from supernovae, and how this removes material from the interstellar medium, is also likely to have a lasting impact on the field. Claudia Lagos Ph.D. thesis was nominated by the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis 2012.

The main focus of this thesis is the mathematical structure of Group Field Theories (GFTs) from the point of view of renormalization theory. Such quantum field theories are found in approaches to quantum gravity related, on the one hand, to Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) and on the other, to matrix- and tensor models. Background material on these topics, including conceptual and technical aspects, are introduced in the first chapters. The work then goes on to explain how the standard tools of Quantum Field Theory can be generalized to GFTs and exploited to study the large cut-off behaviour and renormalization group transformations of the latter. Among the new results derived in this context are a proof of renormalizability of a three-dimensional GFT with gauge group SU(2), which opens the way to applications of the formalism to quantum gravity.

This comprehensive textbook on relativity integrates Newtonian physics, special relativity and general relativity into a single book that emphasizes the deep underlying principles common to them all, yet explains how they are applied in different ways in these three contexts. Newton's ideas about how to represent space and time, his laws of dynamics, and his theory of gravitation established the conceptual foundation from which modern physics developed. Book I in this volume offers undergraduates a modern view of Newtonian theory, emphasizing those aspects needed for understanding quantum and relativistic contemporary physics. In 1905, Albert Einstein proposed a novel representation of space and time, special relativity. Book II presents relativistic dynamics in inertial and accelerated frames, as well as a detailed overview of Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. This provides undergraduate and graduate students with the background necessary for studying particle and accelerator physics, astrophysics and Einstein's theory of general relativity. In 1915, Einstein proposed a new theory of gravitation, general relativity. Book III in this volume develops the geometrical framework in which Einstein's equations are formulated, and presents several key applications: black holes, gravitational radiation, and cosmology, which will prepare graduate students to carry out research in relativistic astrophysics, gravitational wave astronomy, and cosmology.

This comprehensive work thoroughly introduces and reviews the set of results from Belle and BaBar - after more than two decades of independent and complementary work - all the way from the detectors and the analysis tools used, up to the physics results, and the interpretation of these results. The world's two giant B Factory collaborations, Belle at KEK and BaBar at SLAC, have successfully completed their main mission to discover and quantify CP violation in the decays of B mesons. CP violation is a necessary requirement to distinguish unambiguously between matter and antimatter. The shared primary objective of the two B Factory experiments was to determine the shape of the so-called unitarity triangle, an abstract triangle representing interactions of quarks, the elementary constituents of matter. The area of the triangle is a measure of the amount of CP violation associated with the weak force. Many other measurements have been performed by the B Factories and are also discussed in this work.

Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united into a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined? In The Nature of Space and Time, two of the world's most famous physicists--Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time) and Roger Penrose (The Road to Reality)--debate these questions. The authors outline how their positions have further diverged on a number of key issues, including the spatial geometry of the universe, inflationary versus cyclic theories of the cosmos, and the black-hole information-loss paradox. Though much progress has been made, Hawking and Penrose stress that physicists still have further to go in their quest for a quantum theory of gravity.

The present volume aims to be a comprehensive survey on the derivation of the equations of motion, both in General Relativity as well as in alternative gravity theories. The topics covered range from the description of test bodies, to self-gravitating (heavy) bodies, to current and future observations. Emphasis is put on the coverage of various approximation methods (e.g., multipolar, post-Newtonian, self-force methods) which are extensively used in the context of the relativistic problem of motion. Applications discussed in this volume range from the motion of binary systems -- and the gravitational waves emitted by such systems -- to observations of the galactic center. In particular the impact of choices at a fundamental theoretical level on the interpretation of experiments is highlighted. This book provides a broad and up-do-date status report, which will not only be of value for the experts working in this field, but also may serve as a guideline for students with background in General Relativity who like to enter this field.

This work investigates gravitational wave production in the early universe and identifies potentially observable features, thereby paving the way for future gravitational wave experiments. It focuses on gravitational wave production in two scenarios: inflation in a model inspired by loop quantum gravity, and preheating at the end of inflation. In the first part, it is demonstrated that gravitational waves' spectrum differs from the result obtained using ordinary general relativity, with potentially observable consequences that could yield insights into quantum gravity. In the second part, it is shown that the cosmic gravitational wave background is anisotropic at a level that could be detected by future experiments. Gravitational waves promise to be an rich source of information on the early universe. To them, the universe has been transparent from its earliest moments, so they can give us an unobstructed view of the Big Bang and a means to probe the fundamental laws of nature at very high energies.

The work in this thesis was a part of the experiment of squeezed light injection into the LIGO interferometer. The work first discusses the detailed design of the squeezed light source which would be used for the experiment. The specific design is the doubly-resonant, traveling-wave bow-tie cavity squeezed light source with a new modified coherent sideband locking technique. The thesis describes the properties affecting the squeezing magnitudes and offers solutions which improve the gain. The first part also includes the detailed modeling of the back-scattering noise of a traveling Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO). In the second part, the thesis discusses the LIGO Squeezed Light Injection Experiment, undertaken to test squeezed light injection into a 4km interferometric gravitational wave detector. The results show the first ever measurement of squeezing enhancement in a full-scale suspended gravitational wave interferometer with Fabry-Perot arms. Further, it showed that the presence of a squeezed-light source added no additional noise in the low frequency band. The result was the best sensitivity achieved by any gravitational wave detector. The thesis is very well organized with the adequate theoretical background including basics of Quantum Optics, Quantum noise pertaining to gravitational wave detectors in various configurations, along with extensive referencing necessary for the experimental set-up. For any non-experimental scientist, this introduction is a very useful and enjoyable reading. The author is the winner of the 2013 GWIC Theses Prize.

Written by the creator of the modern theory of random tensors, this book is the first self-contained introductory text to this rapidly developing theory. Starting from notions familiar to the average researcher or PhD student in mathematical or theoretical physics, the book presents in detail the theory and its applications to physics. The recent detections of the Higgs boson at the LHC and gravitational waves at LIGO mark new milestones in Physics confirming long standing predictions of Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity. These two experimental results only reinforce today the need to find an underlying common framework of the two: the elusive theory of Quantum Gravity. Over the past thirty years, several alternatives have been proposed as theories of Quantum Gravity, chief among them String Theory. While these theories are yet to be tested experimentally, key lessons have already been learned. Whatever the theory of Quantum Gravity may be, it must incorporate random geometry in one form or another. This book introduces a framework for studying random geometries in any dimensions. Building on the resounding success of random matrices as theories of random two dimensional surfaces, random tensors are their natural generalization to theories of random geometry in arbitrary dimension. This book shows that many of the celebrated results in random matrices, most notably 't Hooft's 1/N expansion, can be generalized to higher dimensions. It provides a complete and self-contained derivation of the key results on random tensors.