It is the tradition of this series of workshops that theorists and experimentalists sharing common interests discuss a variety of issues relevant to promoting the quest to unify microscopic physics and gravitation. This proceedings volume embodies that tradition.It included current hot topics such as superconducting accelerometers, low-temperature-long-distance telescopes for gravitational waves, gravitational experiment with high-precision torsion pendulums and modern high-technology, physics of neutron stars, the theory of accretion disc, Ashtekhar's theory, physics of wormholes, and black holes and entropy.
This book provides an up-to-date overview of the foundations of spacetime physics. It features original essays written by world-class experts in the physics and philosophy of spacetime. The foundational questions regarding the origin and nature of spacetime are branching into new and exciting directions. These questions are not restricted to the quantum gravity program but also arise in the context of a well-established theory like general relativity. Against the background of these quick and diverse developments, this volume features a broad range of perspectives on spacetime. Part I focuses on the nature of spacetime in non-quantum theories, such as Newtonian mechanics and relativity. Part II explores some intriguing conceptual implications of developing a quantum theory of spacetime. The Foundations of Spacetime Physics is an essential resource for scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, and scientific metaphysics.
Some topics covered during the workshop include String Theory, Conformal Field Theory, Physics in 2+1 Dimensions, String Phenomenology and Quantum Cosmology.
This proceedings volume contains selected talks and poster presentations from the 9th International Conference on Path Integrals — New Trends and Perspectives, which took place at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, during the period September 23-28, 2007. Continuing the well-developed tradition of the conference series, the present status of both the different techniques of path integral calculations and their diverse applications to many fields of physics and chemistry is reviewed. This is reflected in the main topics in this volume, which range from more traditional fields such as general quantum physics and quantum or statistical field theory through technical aspects like Monte Carlo simulations to more modern applications in the realm of quantum gravity and astrophysics, condensed matter physics with topical subjects such as Bose-Einstein condensation or quantum wires, biophysics and econophysics. All articles are successfully tied together by the common method of path integration; as a result, special methodological advancements in one topic could be transferred to other topics.
Beyond Einstein’s Gravity is a graduate level introduction to extended theories of gravity and cosmology, including variational principles, the weak-field limit, gravitational waves, mathematical tools, exact solutions, as well as cosmological and astrophysical applications. The book provides a critical overview of the research in this area and unifies the existing literature using a consistent notation. Although the results apply in principle to all alternative gravities, a special emphasis is on scalar-tensor and f(R) theories. They were studied by theoretical physicists from early on, and in the 1980s they appeared in attempts to renormalize General Relativity and in models of the early universe. Recently, these theories have seen a new lease of life, in both their metric and metric-affine versions, as models of the present acceleration of the universe without introducing the mysterious and exotic dark energy. The dark matter problem can also be addressed in extended gravity. These applications are contributing to a deeper understanding of the gravitational interaction from both the theoretical and the experimental point of view. An extensive bibliography guides the reader into more detailed literature on particular topics.
In this book are reported the main results presented at the "Fourth International Workshop on Data Analysis in Astronomy", held at the Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily, Italy, on April 12-19, 1991. The Workshop was preceded by three workshops on the same subject held in Erice in 1984, 1986 and 1988. The frrst workshop (Erice 1984) was dominated by presentations of "Systems for Data Analysis"; the main systems proposed were MIDAS, AlPS, RIAIP, and SAIA. Methodologies and image analysis topics were also presented with the emphasis on cluster analysis, multivariate analysis, bootstrap methods, time analysis, periodicity, 2D photometry, spectrometry, and data compression. A general presentation on "Parallel Processing" was made which encompassed new architectures, data structures and languages. The second workshop (Erice 1986) reviewed the "Data Handling Systems" planned for large major satellites and ground experiments (VLA, HST, ROSAT, COMPASS-COMPTEL). Data analysis methods applied to physical interpretation were mainly considered (cluster photometry, astronomical optical data compression, cluster analysis for pulsar light curves, coded aperture imaging). New parallel and vectorial machines were presented (cellular machines, PAPIA-machine, MPP-machine, vector computers in astronomy). Contributions in the field of artificial intelligence and planned applications to astronomy were also considered (expert systems, artificial intelligence in computer vision).
Recent developments in theoretical physics include new instances of the unification of quite different phenomena. The theoretical community is challenged by the growing interactions between high-energy physics, statistical physics, and condensed matter physics. The common language, though, is exact solutions of two-dimensional and conformable field theories. This volume is a faithful representation of this interdisciplinary domain. Conformable and integrable field theories have been active research topics for several decades. The main recent developments concern the boundary effects and applications to disordered systems. The number of applications of the exact methods to condensed-matter problems has been growing over the years. Nowadays it is widely recognized that strongly interacting systems in low dimensions can be successfully described by integrable and conformable theories. This volume is an indispensable aid to those seeking to find their way in this domain.
Modern astronomy has been characterized by an enormous growth in data acquisition - from new technologies in telescopes, detectors, and computation. One can now compile catalogs of tens or hundreds of millions of stars or galaxies and databases from satellite-based observations are reaching terabit proportions. This wealth of data gives rise to statistical challenges not previously encountered in astronomy. This book is the result of a workshop held at Pennsylvania State University in August 1991 that brought together leading astronomers and statisticians to consider statistical challenges encountered in modern astronomical research. The chapters have all been thoroughly revised in the light of the discussions at the conference, and some of the lively discussion is recorded here as well.
This special issue of the international journal of cosmic physics, Astrophysics and Space Science, contains invited contributions delivered at the Second IEEE International Workshop on Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology, held from 10 to 12 May 1993 in Princeton, New Jersey. The Workshop was sponsored by the NSF Division of Atmospheric Sciences, NASA Headquarters, Space Physics Division, and the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It was the purpose of the Workshop to update topics in Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology presented at the First IEEE International Workshop on Plasma Cosmology, La Jolla, California, 20-22 February 1989, and to again bring together observers and theorists to discuss the related links between plasma theory and observation. Another goal of the Workshop and these proceedings was to highlight the Centennial Celebration (1896-1996) of the founding of Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology and several papers are devoted to the history of this field of science.
This is a uniquely comprehensive and detailed treatment of the theoretical and observational foundations of modern cosmology, by a Nobel Laureate in Physics. It gives up-to-date and self contained accounts of the theories and observations that have made the past few decades a golden age of cosmology.
