Gravitational Solitons

This book gives a self-contained exposition of the theory of gravitational solitons and provides a comprehensive review of exact soliton solutions to Einstein’s equations. The text begins with a detailed discussion of the extension of the Inverse Scattering Method to the theory of gravitation, starting with pure gravity and then extending it to the coupling of gravity with the electromagnetic field. There follows a systematic review of the gravitational soliton solutions based on their symmetries. These solutions include some of the most interesting in gravitational physics such as those describing inhomogeneous cosmological models, cylindrical waves, the collision of exact gravity waves, and the Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes. A valuable reference for researchers and graduate students in the fields of general relativity, string theory and cosmology, this book will also be of interest to mathematical physicists in general.

Author Biography

Vladimir A. Belinski studied at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, where he completed his doctorate and worked until 1990. Currently he is Research Supervisor by special appointment at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Rome, specialising in General Relativity, Cosmology and Nonlinear Physics. He is best known for two scientific results, firstly the proof that there is an infinite curvature singularity in the general solution of Einstein equations, and the discovery of the chaotic oscillatory structure of this singularity, known as the BKL singularity (1968-1975, with I. M. Khalatnikov and E. M. Lifshitz), and secondly the formulation of the Inverse Scattering Method in General Relativity and the discovery of gravitational solitons (1977-1982, with V. E. Zakharov). Enric Verdaguer received his PhD in physics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1977, and has held a professorship at the University of Barcelona since 1993. He specialises in General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetimes, and pioneered the use of the Belinski-Zakharov Inverse Scattering Method in different gravitational contexts, particularly in cosmology, discovering new physical properties in gravitational solitons. Since 1991 his main research interest has been the interaction of quantum fields with gravity. He has studied the consequences of this interaction in the collision of exact gravity waves, in the evolution of cosmic strings and in cosmology. More recently he has worked in the formulation and physical consequences of stochastic semiclassical gravity.