Einstein’s Field Equations and Their Physical Implications: Selected Essays in Honour of Jürgen Ehlers (Lecture Notes in Physics (540))

This book serves two purposes. The authors present important aspects of modern research on the mathematical structure of Einstein's field equations and they show how to extract their physical content from them by mathematically exact methods. The essays are devoted to exact solutions and to the Cauchy problem of the field equations as well as to post-Newtonian approximations that have direct physical implications. Further topics concern quantum gravity and optics in gravitational fields. The book addresses researchers in relativity and differential geometry but can also be used as additional reading material for graduate students. Einstein’s Field Equations and Their Physical Implications: Selected Essays in Honour of Jürgen Ehlers Author: Bernd G. Schmidt Published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg ISBN: 978-3-540-67073-5 DOI: 10.1007/3-540-46580-4 Table of Contents: Selected Solutions of Einstein’s Field Equations: Their Role in General Relativity and Astrophysics The Cauchy Problem for the Einstein Equations Post-Newtonian Gravitational Radiation Duality and Hidden Symmetries in Gravitational Theories Time-Independent Gravitational Fields Gravitational Lensing from a Geometric Viewpoint The primary purpose of all physical theory is rooted in reality, and most relativists pretend to be physicists.