edited by Hagen Kleinert (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) , Robert T Jantzen (Villanova University, USA) , editor of the Marcel Grossmann Meeting series Remo Ruffini (University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy)

Table of Contents (1,236k)
Preface (558k)
Chapter 1: A Brief History of X-Ray Astronomy in Germany (490k)

The Marcel Grossmann Meetings are three-yearly forums that meet to discuss recent advances in gravitation, general relativity and relativistic field theories, emphasizing their mathematical foundations, physical predictions and experimental tests. These meetings aim to facilitate the exchange of ideas among scientists, to deepen our understanding of space–time structures, and to review the status of ongoing experiments and observations testing Einstein's theory of gravitation either from ground or space-based experiments. Since the first meeting in 1975 in Trieste, Italy, which was established by Remo Ruffini and Abdus Salam, the range of topics presented at these meetings has gradually widened to accommodate issues of major scientific interest, and attendance has grown to attract more than 900 participants from over 80 countries.

This proceedings volume of the eleventh meeting in the series, held in Berlin in 2006, highlights and records the developments and applications of Einstein's theory in diverse areas ranging from fundamental field theories to particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, made possible by unprecedented technological developments in experimental and observational techniques from space, ground and underground observatories. It provides a broad sampling of the current work in the field, especially relativistic astrophysics, including many reviews by leading figures in the research community.

• A Brief History of X-ray Astronomy in Germany (J E Truemper)
• On the Discovery of the Kerr Metric (R P Kerr)
• Chaos and Symmetry in String Cosmology (T Damour)
• Hidden Symmetries, Cosmological Singularities and the E₁₀/K(E₁₀) Sigma Model (A Kleinschmidt & H Nicolai)
• The Nature of Generic Cosmological Singularities (C Uggla)
• QCD and String Theory (I R Klebanov)
• The Cosmic String Inverse Problem (J Polchinski)
• Loop Quantum Gravity: Four Recent Advances and a Dozen Frequently Asked Questions (A Ashtekar)
• String Theory Landscape and the Standard Model of Particle Physics (D Lüst)
• The Status of the Virgo Gravitational Wave Detector (M-A Bizouard)
• Analytical Modeling of Binary Black Holes Coalescence (A Buonanno)
• Binary Pulsars and General Relativistic Effects (M Kramer)
• Space Astronometry and Relativity (F Mignard & S A Klioner)
• Neutrino Astronomy 2006 (F Halzen)
• Dark Matter and Sterile Neutrinos (P L Biermann & F Munyaneza)
• Supercomputer Simulations of the Joint Formation and Evolution of Galaxies and Quasars (V Springel)
• CMB Observations: From BOOMERanG to Planck …
• and Beyond (P De Bernardis)
• The Origins and the Early Evolution of Quasars and Supermassive Black Holes (S G Djorgovski et al.)
• On Gamma Ray Bursts (R Ruffini et al.)
• Passion for Precision (H W Theodor)
• The Genesis of General Relativity (J Renn)
• Superposition of Fields of Two Reissner–Nordström Sources (G A Alekseev & V A Belinski)
• Quasiperiodic Oscillations due to Axisymmetric and Non-axisymmetric Shock Oscillations in Black Hole Accretion (S K Chakrabarti et al.)
• Power Spectra of Black Holes (BH) and Neutron Stars (NS) as a Probe of Hydrodynamical Structure of the Source: Diffusion Theory and Its Application to X-ray Observations of NS and BH Sources (L Titarchuk et al.)
• Quark Matter in Compact Stars: Astrophysical Implications and Possible Signatures (I Bombaci)
• Gauge Gravity and Electroweak Theory (D Hestenes)
• Black Holes in Higher Dimensions (Black Strings and Black Rings) (J Kunz)
• Some Remarks on Microlensing Towards LMC and M31 (P Jetzer)
• OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb — Gravity Reveals First Cool Rocky/Icy Exoplanet (M Dominik)
• Theoretical Gravitational Lensing — Beyond the Weak-Field Small-Angle Approximation (V Perlick)
• Nonsingular Collapse of Spherically Symmetric Charged Dust (A Krasinski & K Bolejko)
• Quantum Cosmology Standpoint (P V Moniz)
• Gamma Ray Burst Host Galaxies and the Link to Star Formation (J P U Fynbo et al.)
• Gamma-Ray Bursts with and without Supernova Fireworks (M D Valle)
• Talking about Singularities (S Cotsakis)
• Time Machines and Quantum Theory (M J Hadley)
• Slowly and Rigidly Rotating Perfect Fluid Balls of Petrov Type D (M Bradley et al.)
• Numerical Wave Optics and the Lensing of Gravitational Waves by Globular Clusters (A J Moylan et al.)
• Inflation, Bifurcations of Nonlinear Curvature Lagrangians and Dark Energy (E W Mielke et al.)
• Virgo Data Analysis for C6 and C7 Engineering Runs (E Cuoco et al.)
• Leopold Ernst Halpern and the Generalization of General Relativity (J M Overduin & H S Plendl)
• Post-Newtonian Approximations, Compact Binaries, and Strong Field Tests of Gravity (L Blanchet et al.)
• Tests of Lorentz Symmetry in the Photon Sector (S Herrmann et al.)
• OPTIS — High Precision Test of Special and General Relativity in Space (C Lämmerzahl et al.)
• Testing Special and General Relativity: Clocks and Trajectories (H Dittus et al.)
• Laboratory Limits for Temporal Variations of Fundamental Constants: An Update (E Peik et al.)
• Some Old and Some New Opportunities for Quantum Gravity Phenomenology (G Amelino-Camelia)
• Visualization of Relativistic Effects (H Ruder et al.)
• Astrophysical Black Holes: Do They Have Boundary Layers? (S K Chakrabarti et al.)
• Gravitational Perturbations of Higher Dimensional Rotating Black Holes (H K Kunduri et al.)
• Gravitating Non-Abelian Solitons and Hairy Black Holes in Higher Dimensions (M S Volkov)
• From Quantum Hydrodynamics to Quantum Gravity (G Volovik)
• Chaos in the Yang-Mills Theory and Cosmology: Quantum Aspects (S Matinyan)
• Atom Interferometry for Precision Tests of Gravity: Measurement of G and Test of Newtonian Law at Microscopic Distances (A Bertoldi et al.)
• The Casimir Effect in Relativistic Quantum Field Theories (V M Mostepanenko)
• Local and Global Casimir Energies in a Green's Function Approach (K A Milton et al.)
• M-Theory and Dualities (O Mac Conamhna)
• and other papers