Recent Developments in Gravitation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Classical Relativity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Status of Experimental Gravitation

      • Bruno Bertotti

      Pages 3-22

   3. An Introduction to General Relativity and its Recent Achievements

      • Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

      Pages 23-40

   4. Underlying Mathematical Structures of Classical Gravitation Theory

      • Brandon Carter

      Pages 41-142

3. Quantum Gravity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

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   2. Euclidean Quantum Gravity

      • Stephen W. Hawking

      Pages 145-173

   3. Quantum Field Theory Renormalization in Curved Space-Time

      • David G. Boulware

      Pages 175-217

   4. Aspects of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Space-Time: Effective Action and Energy-Momentum Tensor

      • Leonard Parker

      Pages 219-273

   5. The Formal Structure of Quantum Gravity

      • Bryce S. De Witt

      Pages 275-322

   6. Quantum Gravity: A Fundamental Problem and Some Radical Ideas

      • G. ’t Hooft

      Pages 323-345

   7. Quantum Field Theory and Fibre Bundles in a General Space-Time

      • S. J. Avis, C. J. Isham

      Pages 347-401

4. Supergravity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 403-403

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   2. Supergravity and Superspace

      • Bruno Zumino

      Pages 405-459

   3. The Dynamics of Supergravity

      • S. Deser

      Pages 461-477

   4. Extended Supersymmetry and Extended Supergravity Theories

      • J. Scherk

      Pages 479-517

   5. Lectures in Supergravity Theory

      • P. van Nieuwenhuizen

      Pages 519-548

   6. Irreducible Representations of Supersymmetry

      • Daniel Z. Freedman

      Pages 549-561

   7. Massive Gravitinos

      • S. Ferrara

      Pages 563-575

   8. Anomalies in Supersymmetric Theories

      • M. T. Grisaru

      Pages 577-592

The theory of General Relativity, after its invention by Albert Einstein, remained for many years a monument of mathemati­ cal speculation, striking in its ambition and its formal beauty, but quite separated from the main stream of modern Physics, which had centered, after the early twenties, on quantum mechanics and its applications. In the last ten or fifteen years, however, the situation has changed radically. First, a great deal of significant exper~en­ tal data became available. Then important contributions were made to the incorporation of general relativity into the framework of quantum theory. Finally, in the last three years, exciting devel­ opments took place which have placed general relativity, and all the concepts behind it, at the center of our understanding of par­ ticle physics and quantum field theory. Firstly, this is due to the fact that general relativity is really the "original non-abe­ lian gauge theory," and that our description of quantum field in­ teractions makes extensive use of the concept of gauge invariance. Secondly, the ideas of supersymmetry have enabled theoreticians to combine gravity with other elementary particle interactions, and to construct what is perhaps the first approach to a more finite quantum theory of gravitation, which is known as super­ gravity.

• Gravity
• development
• elementary particle
• general relativity
• gravitation
• mechanics
• modern physics
• physics
• quantum field
• quantum mechanics
• relativity
• renormalization
• structure
• supergravity
• supersymmetry

• Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and High Energies, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France

  Maurice Lévy

• Brandeis University, Waltham, USA

  S. Deser

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