Gravitation and Modern Cosmology: The Cosmological Constants Problem (Ettore Majorana International Science Series, 56)

Peter Gabriel Bergmann started his work on general relativity in 1936 when he moved from Prague to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Bergmann collaborated with Einstein in an attempt to provide a geometrical unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism. Within this program they wrote two articles together: A. Einstein and P. G. Bergmann, Ann. Math. 39, 685 (1938) ; and A. Einstein, V. Bargmann and P. G. Bergmann, Th. von Karman Anniversary Volume 212 (1941). The search for such a theory was intense in the ten years following the birth of general relativity. In recent years, some of the geometrical ideas proposed in these publications have proved essential in contemporary attempts towards the unification of all interactions including gravity, Kaluza-Klein type theories and supergravity theories. In 1942, Bergmann published the book "Introduction to the Theory of Relativity" which included a foreword by Albert Einstein. This book is a reference for the subject, either as a textbook for classroom use or for individual study. A second corrected and enlarged edition of the book was published in 1976. Einstein said in his foreword to the first edition: "Bergmann's book seems to me to satisfy a definite need. . . Much effort has gone into making this book logically and pedagogically satisfactory and Bergmann has spent many hours with me which were devoted to this end. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii My Life....Pages 1-4 Effective Action Model for the Cosmological Constant Revisited....Pages 5-10 Could Final States of Stellar Evolution Proceed Towards Naked Singularities?....Pages 11-18 Torsion, Quantum Effects and the Problem of Cosmological Constant....Pages 19-36 Variations of Constants and Exact Solutions in Multidimensional Gravity....Pages 37-49 Larger Scale Structure in the Lyman-Alpha Absorption Lines....Pages 51-57 Null Surface Canonical Formalism....Pages 59-64 Qualitative Cosmology....Pages 65-85 Third Quantization of Gravity and the Cosmological Constant Problem....Pages 87-99 Cosmological Constant, Quantum Cosmology and Anthropic Principle....Pages 101-119 On the Gravitational Field of an Arbitrary Axisymmetric Mass Endowed with Magnetic Dipole Moment....Pages 121-128 Twistors as Spin 3/2 Charges....Pages 129-137 Experimental Search of Gravitational Waves....Pages 139-150 A Simple Model of the Universe without Singularities....Pages 151-156 String Theory and the Quantization of Gravity....Pages 157-178 Projective Unified Field Theory in Context with the Cosmological Term and the Variability of the Gravitational Constant....Pages 179-184 The Introduction of the Cosmological Constant....Pages 185-187 Pre-Post-History of Tolman’s Cosmos....Pages 189-200 Some Ideas on the Cosmological Constant Problem....Pages 201-216 Velocity of Propagation of Gravitational Radiation, Mass of the Graviton, Range of the Gravitational Force, and the Cosmological Constant....Pages 217-223 Back Matter....Pages 225-228