Peter Gabriel Bergmann started his work on general relativity in 1936 when he moved from Prague to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Bergmann collaborated with Einstein in an attempt to provide a geometrical unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism. Within this program they wrote two articles together: A. Einstein and P. G. Bergmann, Ann. Math. 39, 685 (1938); and A. Einstein, V. Bargmann and P. G. Bergmann, Th. von Karman Anniversary Volume 212 (1941). The search for such a theory was intense in the ten years following the birth of general relativity. In recent...

This NATO Advanced Study Institute course provided an updated understanding, from a fundamental and deep point of view, of the progress and current problems in the early universe, cosmic microwave background radiation, large-scale struc ture, dark matter problem, and the interplay between them. Emphasis was placed on the mutual impact of fundamental physics and cosmology, both at the theo retical and experimental or observational levels, within a deep and well defined programme, and a global unifying view, which, in addition, provides of careful inter-disciplinarity. In addition, each course...

The main goal and impact of modern string theory is to provide a consistent quantum theory of gravity. This book provides an updated collection of original new developments and fundamental research in string theory in connection with gravity and physics at the Planck energy scale.

Topics treated in this volume by pioneering researchers in the field include: classical and quantum string dynamics in strong gravitational fields, space-time singularities, black holes and cosmological backgrounds; particle and string scattering at the Planck energy scale; string cosmology and its observational...