Gravitational Waves
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Author(s): I. Ciufolini et al. (Eds)
Publisher: Institute of Physics
ISBN:  0750307412
Format: hardback
  412pp
Price: £75.00, $120.00
Review Date: May 09, 2001
Review: Gravitational waves are increasingly being found to pay a central role in astrophysics, cosmology and theoretical physics. Technological developments have almost made their direct observation a reality. The direct observation of gravitational waves would open an entirely new field: gravitational wave astronomy. This is expected to bring a revolution in our knowledge of the Universe, by allowing the observation of hitherto unseen phenomena such as coalescence of compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), fall of stars into supermassive black holes, stellar core collapses, big-bang relics, as well as the new and unexpected. This book comprises the course given at the school on Gravitational Waves in Astrophysics, Cosmology and String Theory, held in Italy in Spring 1999. It covers a range of topics including: the basics of GW sources with some recent advanced topics; GW detectors; the astrophysics of GW sources; numerical applications and several recent theoretical developments.