Gravitation and experiment

Viac o knihe

This book is the sixth in a series of lectures from the Séminaire Poincaré, aimed at a broad audience of physicists and mathematicians. The seminar provides current insights into significant topics in physics, encompassing both theoretical and experimental perspectives, along with historical context. Modeled after the Bourbaki seminar in mathematics, the Poincaré Seminar occurs biannually at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris, featuring pre-prepared contributions. Emphasis is placed on the pedagogical quality of the presentations to ensure accessibility for a wide range of scientists. This volume, the ninth seminar held in 2006, focuses on Relativity and Experiment. It begins with a comprehensive introduction to general relativity by T. Damour and includes explorations of potential extensions by string theorist I. Antoniadis. The book compiles contemporary essays on experimental validations of general relativity, which is now robustly supported by experiments, including the precise timing of the double pulsar J0737-3039 discussed by M. Kramer, and satellite missions like Gravity Probe B described by J. Mester. Additionally, the ongoing search for gravitational waves is reviewed by J. Y. Vinet. The continued publication of this series aims to benefit the community of physicists and mathematicians at the professional and graduate student levels.