Tag Archives: Springer

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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:

Shamik Banerjee,
“Symmetries of free massless particles and soft theorems”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 128.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2609-z

Pierre Martin-Dussaud,
“A primer of group theory for Loop Quantum Gravity and spin-foams”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 110.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2583-5

Guillaume Bossard and Severin Luest,
“Microstate geometries at a generic point in moduli space”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 112.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2584-4

Joan Garcia i Tormo and Marika Taylor,
“One point functions for black hole microstates”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 89.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2566-6

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

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

GRG Editor’s Choice free-to-read for GR22/Amaldi13

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On the occasion of the GR22/Amaldi13 conference, all recent GRG Editor’s Choice articles will be free-to-read during July 2019!

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:

Alan A. Coley,
“Mathematical general relativity”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 78.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2559-5

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

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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:

Kastytis Zubovas, Andrew R. King,
“The M–$\sigma$ relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 65.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2549-7

Sudipta Sarkar,
“Black hole thermodynamics: general relativity and beyond”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 63.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2545-y

Brian Allen,
“Sobolev stability of the Positive Mass Theorem and Riemannian Penrose Inequality using inverse mean curvature flow”,
Gen Relativ Gravit (2019) 51: 59.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2542-1

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

Frank Schulz
Publishing Editor GRG

GRG Golden Oldie: The theoretical significance of experimental relativity by R.H. Dicke (1964)

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The Golden Oldies series of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation reprints important papers in general relativity theory that were published 30 or more years ago and are either hard to get hold of, or were originally printed in a language other than English.

The latest work has been republished on 30 April 2019:

Dicke, R.H., Republication of: The theoretical significance of experimental relativity, Gen Relativ Gravit (2018) 51: 57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2509-2​​​​​​​

An editorial note by P.J.E. Peebles and a a brief biography by M.A.H. MacCallum are freely available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-019-2508-3

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight article

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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

New book: The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars

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We would like to announce the publication of a new book in Springer’s ASSL series:

Luciano Rezzolla, Pierre Pizzochero, David Ian Jones, Nanda Rea & Isaac Vidana (eds):
“The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars”.
Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 457.
Springer, Cham (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97616-7
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319976150

This book summarizes the recent progress in the physics and astrophysics of neutron stars and, most importantly, it identifies and develops effective strategies to explore, both theoretically and observationally, the many remaining open questions in the field.

Because of its significance in the solution of many fundamental questions in nuclear physics, astrophysics and gravitational physics, the study of neutron stars has seen enormous progress over the last years and has been very successful in improving our understanding in these fascinating compact objects.

The book addresses a wide spectrum of readers, from students to senior researchers. Thirteen chapters written by internationally renowned experts offer a thorough overview of the various facets of this interdisciplinary science, from neutron star formation in supernovae, pulsars, equations of state super dense matter, gravitational wave emission, to alternative theories of gravity.

The book was initiated by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action MP1304 “Exploring fundamental physics with compact stars” (NewCompStar).

General Relativity and Gravitation welcomes Pablo Laguna

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Introducing our new Editor-in-Chief to succeed Abhay Ashtekar

Publisher and editors of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation (GRG) welcome Pablo Laguna who is taking over the responsibilities of Editor-in-Chief from Abhay Ashtekar, who served on this post from 2012–2018.

We gratefully acknowledge Abhay Ashtekar’s contributions to GRG and the community as a whole. Roy Maartens will continue to jointly lead the journal together with Pablo Laguna, who has been an Editorial Board member since 2013.

Pablo Laguna is Professor and Chair of the School of Physics and member of the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics in the College of Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, U.S.A. His research is in computational astrophysics and numerical relativity. He is using computers to solve the Einstein’s equations of General Relativity to study astrophysical phenomena were the curvature of space-time plays a fundamental role. He is currently focusing on computer simulations to investigate 1) the merger of black holes and/or neutron stars binary systems and their emission of gravitational waves, and 2) the disruption of stars by tidal forces from massive black holes.

General Relativity and Gravitation is led by a high-profile international editorial board and publishes carefully peer-reviewed research papers on all theoretical and experimental aspects of modern general relativity and gravitation research and its extensions. Its Golden Oldies series makes historically relevant seminal papers available to a wide readership. Published under the auspices of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG).

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight article

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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

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight article

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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

GRG Golden Oldies by Lichnerowicz / Doroshkevich and Novikov

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The Golden Oldies series of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation reprints important papers in general relativity theory that were published 30 or more years ago and are either hard to get hold of, or were originally printed in a language other than English.

Two recent works have been republished in October 2018:

Lichnerowicz, A., Republication of: Propagators, commutators and anti-commutators in general relativity, Gen Relativ Gravit (2018) 50: 145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2433-x

Editorial note by Giampiero Esposito is freely available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2440-y

Doroshkevich, A.G. and Novikov, I.D., Republication of: Mean density of radiation in the Metagalaxy and certain problems in relativistic cosmology, Gen Relativ Gravit (2018) 50: 138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2441-x

Editorial note by Ruth Durrer is freely available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2440-y

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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

Living Reviews in Relativity: Updated articles from Euclid TWG and KAGRA/LIGO/Virgo

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The open-access journal Living Reviews in Relativity has published major updates of two review articles in April 2018:

Abbott, B.P. et al. (KAGRA Collaboration, LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), “Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA”, Living Rev Relativ (2018) 21: 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-018-0012-9​​​​​​​

Changes:
Major revision, updated and expanded. Several updates to the document have been made. The most significant changes are the inclusion of details regarding KAGRA, and results from O1 and O2, including GW170817, the first detection with an unambiguous multi-messenger counterpart. The key differences are outlined in an appendix.

Amendola, L. et al. (The Euclid Theory Working Group), “Cosmology and fundamental physics with the Euclid satellite”, Living Rev Relativ (2018) 21: 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41114-017-0010-3​​​​​​​

Changes:
Major revision, updated and expanded. Seven new figures were added. About 300 new references have been cited. Forecasts are not updated in this version, with respect to 2012.

Please, visit frequently our relativity channel (https://www.springer.com/livingreviews/relativity) at http://livingreviews.org for other news.

GRG Editor’s Choice: recent highlight articles

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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

GRG Editor’s Choice: Higher curvature gravities cannot be bootstrapped

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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.

GRG Editor’s Choice: Notable articles in General Relativity & Gravitation

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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.

GRG Editor’s Choice: Cosmological solutions with charged black holes

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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.

Living Reviews in Relativity: new article and website

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The open-access journal Living Reviews in Relativity has published a new review article on 4 April 2017:

Joseph D. Romano and Neil. J. Cornish, Detection methods for stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds: a unified treatment, Living Rev Relativ (2017) 20:2. doi:10.1007/s41114-017-0004-1

We are also happy to announce that the new Living Reviews community portal (http://www.livingreviews.org) was recently relaunched.

With this common entry point to research and review journals in physics and astronomy, three communities will be able to find associated journals, highlighted articles, and related news ‘just a click away’.

We present Springer’s original research journals along with the Living Reviews open-access series as partner journals serving researchers in relativity, solar physics, and computational astrophysics.

This milestone marks also the completion of the Living Reviews journals’ content transfer from its previous publishing platform to SpringerLink, during which all articles have been retro-digitized and are now also available in standard XML/HTML with embedded MathJax.

New textbook (in German): “Spezielle und allgemeine Relativitaetstheorie fuer Bachelorstudenten”, by Reinhard Meinel

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A new textbook published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Its first two parts give an elementary introduction to special and general relativity. The third part (“Ergaenzungen fuer Fortgeschrittene”) deals with mathematical methods that can be used, for example, to solve the black hole boundary value problem of the stationary and axially symmetric Einstein-Maxwell equations leading to the Kerr-Newman solution in a unique and straightforward manner.

GRG Editor’s Choice articles free to read

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On the occasion of the upcoming GR21 conference, selected articles from the journal General Relativity and Gravitation are now free-to-read until July 31, 2016:
http://bit.ly/294Uh4J

In each volume, 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. We would also like to introduce Springer’s new article interface, optimized for easy reading on mobile devices.

General Relativity and Gravitation is a journal devoted to all aspects of modern gravitational science, and published under the auspices of the ISGRG. The journal publishes research letters and papers, invited review articles on all theoretical and experimental aspects of modern general relativity and gravitation, as well as book reviews and historical articles of special interest.

We welcome your submissions, and see you at GR21!

Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics: first articles online

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Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics is a new peer-reviewed open-access journal. Founded and supported by the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, the new member of the pioneering Living Reviews family is published by Springer International.

The journal aims at offering a comprehensive survey of research in computational astrophysics that physicists will know is up-to-date and reliable. Living Reviews is unique in that it only publishes high-quality review articles whose authors commit to update them regularly. This is the meaning of the word “living” in the journal’s title.

Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics now started publication with its first two review articles: “SPH Methods in the Modelling of Compact Objects” by Stephan Rosswog and “Large Eddy Simulations in Astrophysics” by Wolfram Schmidt.

Please find the abstracts and further details below.

—————
Stephan Rosswog
SPH Methods in the Modelling of Compact Objects

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrca-2015-1

ABSTRACT:
We review the current status of compact object simulations that are based on the smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The first main part of this review is dedicated to SPH as a numerical method. We begin by discussing relevant kernel approximation techniques and discuss the performance of different kernel functions. Subsequently, we review a number of different SPH formulations of Newtonian, special- and general relativistic ideal fluid dynamics. We particularly point out recent developments that increase the accuracy of SPH with respect to commonly used techniques. The second main part of the review is dedicated to the application of SPH in compact object simulations. We discuss encounters between two white dwarfs, between two neutron stars and between a neutron star and a stellar-mass black hole. For each type of system, the main focus is on the more common, gravitational wave-driven binary mergers, but we also discuss dynamical collisions as they occur in dense stellar systems such as cores of globular clusters.

—————
Wolfram Schmidt
“Large Eddy Simulations in Astrophysics””

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrca-2015-2

ABSTRACT:
In this review, the methodology of large eddy simulations (LES) is introduced and applications in astrophysics are discussed. As theoretical framework, the scale decomposition of the dynamical equations for neutral fluids by means of spatial filtering is explained. For cosmological applications, the filtered equations in comoving coordinates are also presented. To obtain a closed set of equations that can be evolved in LES, several subgrid-scale models for the interactions between numerically resolved and unresolved scales are discussed, in particular the subgrid-scale turbulence energy equation model. It is then shown how model coefficients can be calculated, either by dynamic procedures or, a priori, from high-resolution data. For astrophysical applications, adaptive mesh refinement is often indispensable. It is shown that the subgrid-scale turbulence energy model allows for a particularly elegant and physically well-motivated way of preserving momentum and energy conservation in adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) simulations. Moreover, the notion of shear-improved models for inhomogeneous and non-stationary turbulence is introduced. Finally, applications of LES to turbulent combustion in thermonuclear supernovae, star formation and feedback in galaxies, and cosmological structure formation are reviewed.

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

New book: “Superradiance” by R. Brito, V. Cardoso and P. Pani

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Dear hyperspace community,

We would like to announce the publication of a new book on the physics of superradiance, co-authored by R. Brito, V. Cardoso and P. Pani, Springer Lecture Notes in Physics vol. 906 (2015).

Details of the book are available at
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-19000-6

or in Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Superradiance-Extraction-Black-Hole-Implications-Astrophysics/dp/3319189999

This volume gives a unified picture of the multifaceted subject of superradiance, with a focus on recent developments in the field, ranging from fundamental physics to astrophysics. The book covers all our current understanding on the physics of the amplification of waves by a medium, including classical effects such as the Cherenkov effect. The main body of the book deals with superradiance in black hole physics, with important applications in astrophysics and particle physics. Each chapter ends with a list of outstanding open problems and future directions.

Best wishes to all,

Richard Brito, Vitor Cardoso, Paolo Pani

New book: “Cosmological and Black Hole Apparent Horizons” by V. Faraoni

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Dear hyperspace community,

I would like to announce the publication of a new book which may be of interest to some of you: “Cosmological and Black Hole Apparent Horizons” by V. Faraoni, 199 pages, 8 figures,
Springer Lecture Notes in Physics vol. 907 (2015)
ISBN:978-3-319-19239-0 (Print) 978-3-319-19240-6 (Online)
Details of the book are available at
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-19240-6

Best wishes to all,

Valerio Faraoni
Physics Department
Bishop’s University
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

Living Reviews move to Springer

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Springer acquires three pioneering open access journals from the Max Planck Society

Springer has acquired the three pioneering ‘living’ open access journals: Living Reviews in Relativity, Living Reviews in Solar Physics, and the recently launched journal Living Reviews in Computational Astrophysics from the Max Planck Society. The Living Reviews will complement Springer’s open access journal portfolio.

New books: Two Volumes from the Prague conference “Relativity and Gravitation—100 years after Einstein in Prague”

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”Relativity and Gravitation–100 years after Einstein in Prague”, was the name of the conference held in Prague on June 25-29, 2012, inspired by the title, date, and significance of the last of Einstein’s Prague papers. The aim of the conference was to review the present status of the general theory of relativity (both classical and quantum) and its applications in cosmology and astrophysics from a broad perspective. The second aim was to present the newest results in each of these fields.

The first volume “General Relativity, Cosmology and Astrophysics–Perspectives 100 years after Einstein’s stay in Prague” (J. Bicak and T. Ledvinka eds.) is included in the Springer series Fundamental Theories of Physics, No. 177.

The articles included in this Volume represent a broad and highly qualified view on the present state of general relativity, quantum gravity, and their cosmological and astrophysical implications. As such, it may serve as a valuable source of knowledge and inspiration for experts in these fields, as well as an advanced source of information for young researchers. The contents are divided into four broad parts: (i) Gravity and Prague, (ii) Classical General Relativity, (iii) Cosmology and Quantum Gravity, and (iv) Numerical Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics. Approaching soon the centenary of Einstein’s famous theory, this volume offers a precious overview of the path done by the scientific community in this field in the last century, defining the challenges of the next 100 years.

The second volume “Relativity and Gravitation–100 Years After Einstein in Prague”, (J. Bicak and T. Ledvinka eds.) is included in the Springer Proceedings in Physics, No. 157.

This volume includes abstracts of the plenary talks (contained in the first volume) and 82 full texts of contributed talks and articles based on the posters presented at the conference. These describe primarily original results of the authors from 31 countries. The contents are divided into three broad parts: (i) Classical General Relativity, (ii) Cosmology and Relativistic Astrophysics, and (iii) Quantum Fields and Quantum Gravity.

The tables of contents, some sample pages and further information can be obtained from the following links:

http://www.springer.com/physics/theoretical%2C+mathematical+%26+computational+physics/book/978-3-319-06348-5
http://www.springer.com/physics/theoretical%2C+mathematical+%26+computational+physics/book/978-3-319-06760-5

Major new reference work: Springer Handbook of Spacetime

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Edited by Abhay Ashtekar and Vesselin Petkov, the long-awaited Springer Handbook of Spacetime is now available, also as an eBook. It is dedicated to the ground-breaking paradigm shifts embodied in the two relativity theories, and describes in detail the profound reshaping of physical sciences they ushered in. In a single volume it includes chapters on foundations, on the underlying mathematics, on physical and astrophysical implications, experimental evidence and cosmological predictions, as well as discussing efforts to unify general relativity and quantum physics. The Handbook can be used as a desk reference by researchers in a wide variety of fields, not only by specialists in relativity but also by researchers in related areas that either grew out of, or are deeply influenced by, the two relativity theories: cosmology, astronomy and astrophysics, high energy physics, quantum field theory, mathematics, and philosophy of science. It should also serve as a valuable resource for graduate students and young researchers entering these areas, and for instructors who teach courses on these subjects.
The Handbook is divided into six parts: Part A: Introduction to Spacetime Structure. Part B: Foundational Issues. Part C: Spacetime Structure and Mathematics. Part D: Confronting Relativity theories with observations. Part E: General relativity and the universe. Part F: Spacetime beyond Einstein.