Living Reviews in Relativity: Cosmology with Euclid / Testing GR with Space-Based GW Detectors / Near-Horizon Geometries of Extremal Black Holes

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Living Reviews in Relativity has published three new review articles:

“Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite” by Luca Amendola et al. (Euclid Theory Working Group),

“Testing General Relativity with Low-Frequency, Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors” by Jonathan R. Gair et al.,

“Classification of Near-Horizon Geometries of Extremal Black Holes” by Hari K. Kunduri and James Lucietti.

Please find the abstract and further details below.

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PUB.NO. lrr-2013-6
Luca Amendola et al. (Euclid Theory Working Group)
“Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite”

ACCEPTED: 2013-06-13
PUBLISHED: 2013-09-02

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2013-6

ABSTRACT:
Euclid is a European Space Agency medium-class mission selected for launch in 2019 within the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. The main goal of Euclid is to understand the origin of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Euclid will explore the expansion history of the Universe and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring shapes and redshifts of galaxies as well as the distribution of clusters of galaxies over a large fraction of the sky. Although the main driver for Euclid is the nature of dark energy, Euclid science covers a vast range of topics, from cosmology to galaxy evolution to planetary research. In this review we focus on cosmology and fundamental physics, with a strong emphasis on science beyond the current standard models. We discuss five broad topics: dark energy and modified gravity, dark matter, initial conditions, basic assumptions and questions of methodology in the data analysis. This review has been planned and carried out within Euclid’s Theory Working Group and is meant to provide a guide to the scientific themes that will underlie the activity of the group during the preparation of the Euclid mission.

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PUB.NO. lrr-2013-7
Jonathan R. Gair, Michele Vallisneri, Shane L. Larson and John G. Baker
“Testing General Relativity with Low-Frequency, Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors”

ACCEPTED: 2013-08-19
PUBLISHED: 2013-09-12

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2013-7

ABSTRACT:
We review the tests of general relativity that will become possible with space-based gravitational-wave detectors operating in the $sim 10^5 – 1$ Hz low-frequency band. The fundamental aspects of gravitation that can be tested include the presence of additional gravitational fields other than the metric; the number and tensorial nature of gravitational-wave polarization states; the velocity of propagation of gravitational waves; the binding energy and gravitational-wave radiation of binaries, and therefore the time evolution of binary inspirals; the strength and shape of the waves emitted from binary mergers and ringdowns; the true nature of astrophysical black holes; and much more. The strength of this science alone calls for the swift implementation of a space-based detector; the remarkable richness of astrophysics, astronomy, and cosmology in the low-frequency gravitational-wave band make the case even stronger.

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PUB.NO. lrr-2013-8
Kunduri, Hari K. and Lucietti, James
“Classification of Near-Horizon Geometries of Extremal Black Holes”

ACCEPTED: 2013-09-11
PUBLISHED: 2013-09-25

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2013-8

ABSTRACT:
Any spacetime containing a degenerate Killing horizon, such as an extremal black hole, possesses a well-defined notion of a near-horizon geometry. We review such near-horizon geometry solutions in a variety of dimensions and theories in a unified manner. We discuss various general results including horizon topology and near-horizon symmetry enhancement. We also discuss the status of the classification of near-horizon geometries in theories ranging from vacuum gravity to Einstein–Maxwell theory and supergravity theories. Finally, we discuss applications to the classification of extremal black holes and various related topics. Several new results are presented and open problems are highlighted throughout.

UPCOMING ARTICLES AT:
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html