In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. These recent articles deserves special attention:

Eric Addison, Miguel Gracia-Linares, Pablo Laguna, Shane L. Larson,
“Busting up binaries: encounters between compact binaries and a supermassive black hole”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 38.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2523-4

Eva Hackmann, Arnab Dhani,
“The propagation delay in the timing of a pulsar orbiting a supermassive black hole”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 37.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2517-2

Thomas P. Kling, Eric Grotzke, Kevin Roebuck, Harry Waite,
“Examining the Kerr metric through wave fronts of null geodesics”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 32.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2518-1

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. These recent articles deserves special attention:

Stone, N.C., Kesden, M., Cheng, R.M. et al.,
“Stellar tidal disruption events in general relativity”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 30.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2510-9

Osorio Morales, J. and Santillan, O.P.,
“The existence of smooth solutions in q-models”
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 29.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2507-4

Chakraborty, S. and Parattu, K.,
“Null boundary terms for Lanczos-Lovelock gravity”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 23.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2502-9

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. This recent article deserves special attention:

Harte, Abraham I.,
“Gravitational lensing beyond geometric optics: I. Formalism and observables”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 14.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2494-x

Abstract:
The laws of geometric optics and their corrections are derived for scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational waves propagating in generic curved spacetimes. Local peeling-type results are obtained, where different components of high-frequency fields are shown to scale with different powers of their frequencies. Additionally, finite-frequency corrections are identified for a number of conservation laws and observables. Among these observables are a field’s energy and momentum densities, as well as several candidates for its corrected “propagation directions”.

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. This recent article deserves special attention:

Chiang-Mei Chen, Jian-Liang Liu, James M. Nester,
“Quasi-local energy from a Minkowski reference”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2484-z

Abstract:
The specification of energy for gravitating systems has been an unsettled issue since Einstein proposed his pseudotensor. It is now understood that energy-momentum is quasi-local (associated with a closed 2-surface). Here we consider quasi-local proposals (including pseudotensors) in the Lagrangian–Noether–Hamiltonian formulations. There are two ambiguities: (1) there are many possible expressions, (2) they depend on some non-dynamical structure, e.g., a reference frame. The Hamiltonian approach gives a handle on both problems. The Hamiltonian perspective helped us to make a remarkable discovery: with an isometric Minkowski reference a large class of expressions—namely all those that agree with the Einstein pseudotensor’s Freud superpotential to linear order—give a common quasi-local energy value. Moreover, with a best-matched reference on the boundary this is the Wang–Yau mass value.

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. This recent article deserves special attention:

Abhay Ashtekar, Miguel Campiglia and Alok Laddha,
“Null infinity, the BMS group and infrared issues”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2464-3

Abstract:
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the structure of the gravitational field at null infinity, sparked by new results on soft charges and infrared issues related to the S matrix theory in perturbative quantum gravity. We summarize these developments and put them in the broader context of research in the relativity community that dates back to several decades. In keeping with intent of this series, this overview is addressed to gravitational scientists who are not experts in this specific area.

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. These recent articles deserve special attention:

Jolin, Shan W. & Rosquist, Kjell
“Analytic analysis of irregular discrete universes”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2436-7

Newman, Ezra T.
“Classical mechanics via general relativity and Maxwell’s theory: a bit of magic”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2424-y

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. These recent articles deserve special attention:

Henric Krawczynski
“Difficulties of quantitative tests of the Kerr-hypothesis with X-ray observations of mass accreting black holes”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2419-8

Ivan Agullo
“Primordial power spectrum from the Dapor–Liegener model of loop quantum cosmology”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2413-1

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high-quality research that is of wide interest within the community. These recent articles deserve special attention:

Jeremy D. Schnittman
“The collisional Penrose process”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2373-5

Claus Kiefer, David Wichmann
“Semiclassical approximation of the Wheeler–DeWitt equation: arbitrary orders and the question of unitarity”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2390-4

Hideyoshi Arakida
“Light deflection and Gauss–Bonnet theorem: definition of total deflection angle and its applications”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2368-2

Emanuele Berti, Kent Yagi, Nicolas Yunes
“Extreme gravity tests with gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences: (I) inspiral–merger”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2362-8

Please, browse all Editor’s Choice articles at:
https://www.springer.com/gp/livingreviews/relativity/grg-editors-choice

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

In each volume of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG), a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high quality research that is of wide interest within the community.

Three recent articles deserve special attention (free-to-read access until April 15, 2018):

Giorgio Sarno, Simone Speziale and Gabriele V. Stagno, 2-vertex Lorentzian spin foam amplitudes for dipole transitions, Gen Relativ Gravit (2018) 50: 43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2360-x

Pedro V. P. Cunha and Carlos A. R. Herdeiro, Shadows and strong gravitational lensing: a brief review, Gen Relativ Gravit (2018) 50: 42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2361-9

Dario Brooks, Paul-Christopher Chavy-Waddy, Alan A. Coley, Adam Forget, Daniele Gregoris, Malcolm A. H. MacCallum and David D. McNutt, Cartan invariants and event horizon detection, Gen Relativ Gravit (2018) 50: 37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2358-4

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

Deser, S., Higher curvature gravities, unlike GR, cannot be bootstrapped from their (usual) linearizations, Gen Relativ Gravit (2017) 49: 149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-017-2308-6

Editor’s Choice (Research Article)
First Online: 07 November 2017

“This paper extends the author’s original contribution from 1970 to a broad class of theories that modify general relativity. The result is a paper that provides a continuation of the 1970 story. The author’s style and commitment to exposing the structural elements of the procedure make for a very nice article that reads well and serves a useful and illuminating purpose in the ‘extensions of GR’ literature.”

Abstract:
We show that higher curvature order gravities, in particular the propagating quadratic curvature models, cannot be derived by self-coupling from their linear, flat space, forms, except through an unphysical version of linearization; only GR can. Separately, we comment on an early version of the self-coupling bootstrap.

GRG Editor’s Choice:
In each volume of GRG, a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high quality research that is of wide interest within the community.

In each volume of the journal General Relativity & Gravitation, a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high quality research that is of wide interest within the community.

Tanatarov, I.V. & Zaslavskii, O.B., Collisional super-Penrose process and Wald inequalities, Gen Relativ Gravit (2017) 49: 119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-017-2281-0

Abstract:
We consider collision of two massive particles in the equatorial plane of an axially symmetric stationary spacetime that produces two massless particles afterwards. It is implied that the horizon is absent but there is a naked singularity or another potential barrier that makes possible the head-on collision. The relationship between the energy in the center of mass frame Ec.m. and the Killing energy E measured at infinity is analyzed. It follows immediately from the Wald inequalities that unbounded E is possible for unbounded Ec.m. only. This can be realized if the spacetime is close to the threshold of the horizon formation. Different types of spacetimes (black holes, naked singularities, wormholes) correspond to different possible relations between Ec.m. and E. We develop a general approach that enables us to describe the collision process in the frames of the stationary observer and zero angular momentum observer. The escape cone and escape fraction are derived. A simple explanation of the existence of the bright spot is given. For the particular case of the Kerr metric, our results agree with the previous ones found in Patil et al. (Phys Rev D 93:104015, 2016).

Sakovich, A. & Sormani, C., Almost rigidity of the positive mass theorem for asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds with spherical symmetry, Gen Relativ Gravit (2017) 49: 125. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-017-2291-y

Abstract:
We use the notion of intrinsic flat distance to address the almost rigidity of the positive mass theorem for asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds. In particular, we prove that a sequence of spherically symmetric asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds satisfying the conditions of the positive mass theorem converges to hyperbolic space in the intrinsic flat sense, if the limit of the mass along the sequence is zero.

Bibi, R., Clifton, T. and Durk, J., Cosmological solutions with charged black holes, Gen Relativ Gravit (2017) 49: 98. doi:10.1007/s10714-017-2261-4

Open Access | Editor’s Choice (Research Article)
First Online: 30 June 2017

In each volume of the journal General Relativity & Gravitation, a few papers are marked as “Editor’s Choice”. The primary criteria is original, high quality research that is of wide interest within the community.

Abstract:
We consider the problem of constructing cosmological solutions of the Einstein–Maxwell equations that contain multiple charged black holes. By considering the field equations as a set of constraint and evolution equations, we construct exact initial data for N charged black holes on a hypersphere. This corresponds to the maximum of expansion of a cosmological solution, and provides sufficient information for a unique evolution. We then consider the specific example of a universe that contains eight charged black holes, and show that the existence of non-zero electric charge reduces the scale of the cosmological region of the space. These solutions generalize the Majumdar–Papapetrou solutions away from the extremal limit of charged black holes, and provide what we believe to be some of the first relativistic calculations of the effects of electric charge on cosmological backreaction.

The authors:
Jessie Durk is currently a PhD student, researching theoretical cosmology with Dr Timothy Clifton, lecturer at Queen Mary University London. Rashida Bibi is a faculty member of the International Islamic University, Islamabad.