Ebook: The Universe: Visions and Perspectives

It is with great joy that we present a collection of essays written in honour of Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, who completed 60 years of age on July 19, 1998, by his friends and colleagues, including several of his for­ mer students. Jayant has had a long research career in astrophysics and cosmology, which he began at Cambridge in 1960, as a student of Sir Fred Hoyle. He started his work with a big bang, expounding on the steady state theory of the Universe and creating a new theory of gravity inspired by Mach's principle. He also worked on action-at-a-distance electrodynamics, inspired by the explorations of Wheeler, Feynman and Hogarth in that direction. This body of work established Jayant's rep­ utation as a bold and imaginative physicist who was ever willing to take a fresh look at fundamental issues, undeterred by conventional wis­ dom. This trait, undoubtedly inherited from his teacher and mentor, has always remained with Jayant. It is now most evident in his untir­ ing efforts to understand anomalies in quasar astronomy, and to develop the quasi-steady state cosmology, along with a group of highly distin­ guished astronomers including Halton Arp, Geoffrey Burbidge and Fred Hoyle. In spite of all this iconoclastic activity, Jayant remains a part of the mainstream; he appreciates as well as encourages good work along conventional lines by his students and colleagues. This is clear from the range of essays included in this volume, and the variety and distribution of the essayists.

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This volume contains a number of essays by experts in areas of theoretical physics and astrophysics including cosmology, classical and quantum gravity, string theory and relativistic astrophysics. It will provide the reader with excellent reviews of current research in these frontier areas. Several of the essays emphasise alternative views of the Universe by leading astronomers and physicists who are known for their pioneering contributions.
The volume is dedicated to Professor Jayant Narlikar, who has concerned himself with fundamental issues in cosmology and gravitation theory over a long and distinguished research career.

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This volume contains a number of essays by experts in areas of theoretical physics and astrophysics including cosmology, classical and quantum gravity, string theory and relativistic astrophysics. It will provide the reader with excellent reviews of current research in these frontier areas. Several of the essays emphasise alternative views of the Universe by leading astronomers and physicists who are known for their pioneering contributions.
The volume is dedicated to Professor Jayant Narlikar, who has concerned himself with fundamental issues in cosmology and gravitation theory over a long and distinguished research career.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xi
Observations and Theory....Pages 1-6
Ejection from Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies....Pages 7-12
Quantum Mechanics of Geometry....Pages 13-34
Quantum Mechanics and Retrocausality....Pages 35-50
Instantons for Black Hole Pair Production....Pages 51-68
The Origin of Helium and the Other Light Elements....Pages 69-76
Superluminal Motion and Gravitational Lensing....Pages 77-86
Dual Spacetimes, Mach’s Principle and Topological Defects....Pages 87-96
Noncosmological Redshifts of Quasars....Pages 97-103
Extragalactic Fire-Works in Gammarays....Pages 105-109
Instabilities in Optical Cavities of Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors....Pages 111-121
The Epistemology of Cosmology....Pages 123-140
Mathematics and Science....Pages 141-144
Radiation Reaction in Electrodynamics and General Relativity....Pages 145-160
Gravitational Collapse: The Story So Far....Pages 161-168
Thoughts on Galactic Magnetism....Pages 169-179
The Black Hole in Mcg 6-30-15....Pages 181-190
Inhomogeneous Cosmological Models and Symmetry....Pages 191-199
The Black Hole Information Paradox: What Have we Learnt from String Theory?....Pages 201-212
The Counting of Radio Sources: A Personal Perspective....Pages 213-226
A Variational Principle for Time of Arrival of Null Geodesics....Pages 227-237
Conceptual Issues in Combining General Relativity and Quantum Theory....Pages 239-251
Open Inflation in Higher Derivative Theory....Pages 253-259
The Non-Homogeneous and Hierarchical Universe....Pages 261-276
A Fresh Look at the Singularity Problem....Pages 277-284
Probing Beyond the Cosmic Horizon....Pages 285-288
The Kerr-Nut Metric Revisited....Pages 289-300
Black Holes in Cosmological Backgrounds....Pages 301-308
Elementary Particle Interactions and Noncommutative Geometry....Pages 309-318
From Interstellar Grains to Panspermia....Pages 319-325
Back Matter....Pages 327-343
....Pages 345-346