Directions in General Relativity – Volume 1

  • REMARKS CONCERNING THE GEOMETRIES OF GRAVITY AND GAUGE FIELDS
    • INTRODUCTION
    • LOCALITY OF GRAVITY AND GAUGE FIELDS
    • AHARONOV-BOHM EFFECT AND PARALLEL TRANSPORT ON A CONE
    • GRAVITATIONAL PHASE FACTOR
  • Gravity and Unification of Fundamental Interactions
    • INTRODUCTION
    • N=l SUPERGRAVITY MODELS
    • SUSY MASS SPECTRUM AND FLAVOR CHANGING NEUTRAL INTERACTIONS
  • Minisuperspaces: Symmetries and Quantization
    • Introduction
    • Hamiltonian cosmology
    • Quantization
    • Discussion
  • Quantum Cosmology
    • INTRODUCTION
    • CLASSICAL THEORY
    • CANONICAL QUANTIZATION OF GRAVITY
    • QUANTIZATION IN MINISUPERSPACE
    • EXAMPLES
      • The DeSitter Model
      • Massless Scalar Field in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe
      • Mixmaster Universe
  • A Pictorial History of some Gravitational
    • Introduction
    • Tunneling in Several Dimensions
    • Gravitational Bounces
    • Fuctuation Instantons
    • Conclusions
  • No Time Machines from Light like Sources in 2+1 Gravity
    • Introduction
    • Spacetimes Generated by Lightlike Sources
    • Total Energy and Tachyon Conditions
    • Closed Timelike Curves
    • Topologically Massive Gravity
  • Inhomogeneity and Anisotropy Generation in FRW Cosmologies
    • Introduction
    • The matter description
    • An anisotropic and inhomogeneous case
    • Continuation of the model
  • Misner, Kinks, and Black Holes
  • THE QUANTUM MECHANICS OF CLOSED SYSTEMS
    • INTRODUCTION
    • PROBABILITIES IN GENERAL AND PROBABILITIES IN QUAN­TUM MECHANICS
    • PROBABILITIES FOR A TIME SEQUENCE OF MEASUREMENTS
    • POST-EVERETT QUANTUM MECHANICS
    • THE ORIGINS OF DECOHERENCE IN OUR UNIVERSE
    • THE COPENHAGEN APPROXIMATION
    • QUASICLASSICAL DOMAINS
  • Cosmological Vacuum Phase Transitions
    • Introduction
    • First Order Vacuum Phase Transitions and the “Thin-Wall” Approxi­mation
    • Exact Results for False Vacuum Decay Rates
    • Nucleation Sites for Cosmological Vacuum Phase Transitions
    • Stability of our Present Vacuum State
    • The Bubble Wall
  • Minisuperspace as a Quantum Open System