The Kerr Spacetime: Rotating Black Holes in General Relativity

by Edited by David L. Wiltshire , Matt Visser , Susan M. Scott

• ISBN13: 9780521885126
• ISBN10: 0521885124
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Rotating black holes, as described by the Kerr space-time, are the key to understanding the most violent and energetic phenomena in the Universe, from the core collapse of massive supernova explosions producing powerful bursts of gamma rays, to supermassive black hole engines that power quasars and other active galactic nuclei. This book is a unique, comprehensive overview of the Kerr space-time, with original contributions and historical accounts from researchers who have pioneered the theory and observation of black holes, and Roy Kerr's own description of his 1963 discovery. It covers all aspects of rotating black holes, from mathematical relativity to astrophysical applications and observations, and current theoretical frontiers. This book provides an excellent introduction and survey of the Kerr space-time for researchers and graduate students across the spectrum of observational and theoretical astrophysics, general relativity, and high-energy physics.

Author Biography

David L. Wiltshire is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research has spanned many areas in general relativity and cosmology, including black holes in higher dimensional gravity, brane worlds, quantum cosmology, dark energy and the averaging problem in inhomogeneous cosmology. Matt Visser is Professor of Mathematics at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has published widely in the areas of general relativity, quantum field theory and theoretical cosmology. He is best known for his contributions to the theory of traversable wormholes, chronology protection, and analogue spacetimes. Susan M. Scott is Associate Professor in the Centre for Gravitational Physics at the Australian National University. She is well known for her contributions to mathematical relativity and cosmology, and is currently President of the Australasian Society for General Relativity and Gravitation.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xiv
List of Illustrations	p. xiv
General relativity: Classical studies of the
The Kerr spacetime - a brief introduction	p. 3
The Kerr and Kerr-Schild metrics	p. 38
Roy Kerr and twistor theory	p. 73
Global and local problems solved by the Kerr metric	p. 95
Four decades of black hole uniqueness theorems	p. 115
Ray-traced visualisations in asymptotically flat spacetimes: the Kerr-Newman black hole	p. 144
Astrophysics: The ongoing observational revolution in our understanding of rotating black holes
The ergosphere and dyadosphere of the Kerr black hole	p. 161
Supermassive black holes	p. 213
The X-ray spectra of accreting Kerr black holes	p. 236
Cosmological flashes from rotating black holes	p. 281
Quantum gravity: Rotating black holes at the theoretical frontiers
Horizon constraints and black hole entropy	p. 311
Higher dimensional generalizations of the Kerr black hole	p. 332
Appendices
Gravitational field of a spinning mass as an example of algebraically special metrics	p. 347
Gravitational collapse and rotation	p. 349
Index	p. 354
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