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| Author(s) |
Hu, B.L. (ed.) Ryan, M.P. (ed.) Vishveshwara, C.V. (ed.) |
|---|---|
| Title | Directions in General Relativity, Vol. I, Papers in Honor of Charles Misner |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year of publication | 1993 |
| Reviewed by | Paul Blaga |
The two volumes of Directlons in General Relativity are the proceedings of an international Symposium on General Relativity held at the University of Maryland 27 to 29 May 1993 to celebrate the sixtieth birthdays of Charles Misner and Dieter Brill. The first volume comprizes the papers dedicated to Charles Misner.
Charles Visner is, without any doubt, one of the most outstanding worldwide experts in general relativity. He was one of the founders of modern general relativity, largely based on the modern differential geometry and topology. He made important contributions to the canonical formalism of general relativity (being the creator, with Arnowitt and Deser, of the celebrated ADM formalism), to classical and quantum cosmology, gravitational collapse a.o. Misner is, also, a respected teacher. He is (with Wheeler and Thorne) the author of one of the most famous books of relativity ever written (Gravitation, Freeman, 1973).
The book includes papers related to classical and quantum general relativity, gauge theories, canonical methods, relativistic astrophysics a.o. All the authors are experts in their fields, and the articles present the latest developments in these subjects, sometimes suggesting, also, future directicus of research in the respective topic. Although the range of topics is fairly large, most papers report results from the fields in which Misner made important contributions. Let me, also, add that a number of contributors are former collaborators or pupils of the celebrated scientist. The book also includes a curriculum vitae of Charles Misner, the list of the PhD thesis supervized by him and the list of his publications.
The volume is excellent realized from the technical point of view. Every paper ends with a list of references. The book wild be invaluable for any researcher in general relativity or any graduate student searching his way in this field of science.