Mathematical general relativity: a sampler

I withdraw the previous version of the paper since it contains conceptual and mathematical mistakes. I will soon replace it with a radically revised version.

Popular wisdom amongst theoretical physicists says that the continuum structure of spacetime is probably not elementary, but rather emergent. While many arguments to support that view arise from speculative ideas, the argument can also be made by only invoking standard physics. In this manuscript, I shall argue that a novel general theory of relativity might change the deal, while it corresponds to a somewhat minimal extension of the core theory of physics.

After recalling the conceptual foundations and the basic structure of general relativity, we review some of its main modern developments (apart from cosmology) : (i) the post-Newtonian limit and weak-field tests in the solar system, (ii) strong gravitational fields and black holes, (iii) strong-field and radiative tests in binary pulsar observations, (iv) gravitational waves, (v) general relativity and quantum theory.

This article reviews, from a global point of view, rigorous results on time independent spacetimes. Throughout attention is confined to isolated bodies at rest or in uniform rotation in an otherwise empty universe. The discussion starts from first principles and is, as much as possible, self-contained.

The content of Einstein's theory of gravitation is encoded in the properties of the solutions to his field equations. There has been obtained a wealth of information about these solutions in the ninety years the theory has been around. It led to the prediction and the observation of physical phenomena which confirm the important role of general relativity in physics. The understanding of the domain of highly dynamical, strong field configurations is, however, still quite limi...

The demand to obtain answers to highly complex problems within strong-field gravity has been met with significant progress in the numerical solution of Einstein's equations - along with some spectacular results - in various setups. We review techniques for solving Einstein's equations in generic spacetimes, focusing on fully nonlinear evolutions but also on how to benchmark those results with perturbative approaches. The results address problems in high-energy physics, hologr...

In this survey we review the progress made in the last ten years in understanding the Black Hole Rigidity problem in the setting of smooth spacetimes. We review both local and global results and discuss the main mathematical ideas behind them.

This pre-print contains the abstracts of seminars (including key references) presented at the ESI workshop on mathematical problems in quantum gravity held during July and August of 1996. Contributors include A. Ashtekar, J. Baez, F. Barbero, A. Barvinsky, F. Embacher, R. Gambini, D. Giulini, J. Halliwell, T. Jacobson, R. Loll, D. Marolf, K. Meissner, R. Myers, J. Pullin, M. Reisenberger, C. Rovelli, T. Strobl and T. Thiemann. While these contributions cover most of the talks...

We discuss how developments in physics often imply in the need that spacetime acquires an increasingly richer and complex structure. General Relativity was the first theory to show us the way to connect space and time with the physical world. Since then, scrutinizing the ways spacetime might exist is, in a way, the very essence of physics. Physics has thus given substance to the pioneering work of scores of brilliant mathematicians who speculated on the geometry and topology ...

This lecture note is hopefully helpful to undergraduate and postgraduate students or beginning Ph.D students both in theoretical physics and in applied mathematics. Modern terminology in differential geometry has been discussed in the book with the motivation of geometrical or pictorial way of thinking. This note is an effort of teaching differential geometry and shows its wide applicability to relativity theory. The problems in this lecture note may be useful to the students