Black holes, cosmology and extra dimensions (Q5891642)

The first of the authors of this book, K. A. Bronnikov, has been working for 40 years on the topics black holes, cosmology and extra dimensions. His coauthor, S. G. Rubin, joined that research 12 years ago. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that, in a sense, this book represents something like the summary of Bronnikov's research results accompanied by several related results achieved by others.NEWLINENEWLINEThe 20 pages of the introductory chapter 1: ``Modern ideas of gravitation and cosmology -- a brief essay'' represent a lucid overview, including strings and branes, about the leading ideas in the 20th century related to these subjects. It can also be read and understood by non-specialists, whereas the main part of the book assumes some more mathematical background. The appendix has some philosophical touch, it deals with questions like: Why do correct theories look elegant?NEWLINENEWLINEFor the main part see the publisher's description: ``Assuming foundational knowledge of special and general relativity, this book guides the reader on issues surrounding black holes, wormholes, cosmology, and extra dimensions. Its first part is devoted to local strong field configurations (black holes and wormholes) in general relativity and the most relevant of alternative theories: scalar-tensor, \(f(R)\) and multidimensional theories. The second part is on cosmology, including inflation and a unified description of the whole evolution of the universe. The third part concerns multidimensional theories of gravity and contains a number of original results obtained by the authors. Expository work is conducted for a mechanism of symmetries and fundamental constants formation, while the original approach to nonlinear multidimensional gravity that is able to construct a unique perspective describing different phenomena is highlighted. Much of the content is new in book publications, because it was previously found only in journal publications, e.g. regarding regular black holes, various scalar field solutions, wormholes and their stability, and multidimensional gravity.''