Gravitational Solitons

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 (1968–75, 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 (1977–82, 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.

' … this is a complete and detailed treatment of a complicated subject. The authors provide a general introduction to their methods and the book is essentially self-contained. It could in principle be read by a third year undergraduate who had taken an introductory course in general relativity, particularly one who was interested in integrable systems.' Contemporary Physics

• Preface; 1. Inverse scattering technique in gravity; 2. General properties of gravitational solitons; 3. Einstein-Maxwell fields; 4. Cosmology: diagonal metrics from Kasner; 5. Cosmology: nondiagonal metrics and perturbed FLRW; 6. Cylindrical symmetry; 7. Plane waves and colliding plane waves; 8. Axial symmetry; Bibliography; Index.