Roger W. Babson, Founder
George M. Rideout, Jr., President

The trustees are pleased to announce the Awards for Essays for 2012.

1. $4,000 – Can Effects of Quantum Gravity Be Observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background? by Claus Kiefer and Manuel Kraemer, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Zuelpicher Strasse 77, 50937 Koeln, Germany; e-mail: kiefer[AT]thp.uni-koeln.de mk[AT]thp.uni-koeln.de

2. $1,250 – What Can the Information Paradox Tell Us about the Early Universe? by Samir D. Mathur, Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210; e-mail: mathur[AT]mps.ohio-state.edu

3. $1,000 – The Unbearable Beingness of Light – Dressing and Undressing Photons in Black Hole Spacetimes by Timothy J. Hollowood and Graham M. Shore, Department of Physics, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK: e-mail: t.hollowood[AT]swansea.ac.uk g.m.shore[AT]swansea.ac.uk

4. $750 – Holographic Space-Time by Tom Banks, NHETC and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019, and SCIPP and Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077; e-mail: banks[AT]scipp.ucsc.edu

5. $500 – Secret Life of the Spacetime by T. Padmanabhan, IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune – 411007, India; e-mail: paddy[AT]iucaa.ernet.in

Selected for Honorable Mention this year were (listed in alphabetical order) Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Valerio Astuti and Giacomo Rosati; Jacob D. Bekenstein; Adam R. Brown and Alex Dahlen; Marcelo Botta Cantcheff; Marios Christodoulou, Aldo Riello and Carlo Rovelli; Joseph P. Conlon; Christian Corda; Lawrence B. Crowell; Upasana Das and Banibrata Mukhopadhyay; Arundhati Dasgupta and Adamantia Zampeli; Aharon Davidson and Ben Yellin; Henrique P. de Oliveira, Leopoldo A. Pando Zayas and Cesar A. Terrero-Escalante; Irina Dymnikova; Ariel Edery and Hugues Beauchesne; Homer G. Ellis; Tiberiu Harko and Francisco S. N. Lobo; Shahar Hod; Viqar Husain and Dawood Kothawala; Ted Jacobson; Priti Mishra and Tejinder P. Singh; Sujoy Kumar Modak and Douglas Singleton; Kouji Nakamura; M. B. Paranjape; Ira Z. Rothstein; Rolf Schimmrigk; C. Sivaram and Kenath Arun; Albert Stebbins; W.M. Stuckey, T.J. McDevitt and M. Silberstein; Yu Tian, Xiao-Ning Wu and Hongbao Zhang; Christos G. Tsagas; C. S. Unnikrishnan and G. T. Gillies; Ram Gopal Vishwakarma.

This announcement and abstracts of award-winning and honorable mention essays will be posted when ready on our web site, http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org. The five award-winning essays will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Modern Physics D (IJMPD). They will also be posted at a later date on our web site.

Note that the viva period for eligible candidates is longer than in previous years.

The winner will be awarded £500 and they will be invited to submit a paper to CQG based on the winning thesis which, if accepted, will be made a ’select article’ in CQG. Furthermore, the winner will be given the opportunity to present their work at one of the UK BritGrav meetings.

Anyone (student or otherwise) can nominate a candidate (including the candidate themselves). If you have someone in mind, please send an email to the IOP Gravitational Physics Group secretary (David Burton at d.burton[AT]lancaster.ac.uk) containing the candidate’s contact details and the committee will encourage them to enter the competition. The candidate must be a member of the IOP Gravitational Physics Group, and will be asked to provide their IOP membership number.

Please note that the student’s external PhD examiner must be willing to comment on the student’s research, quality of the student’s thesis and the student’s ability to cogently communicate their work (evidenced by their viva performance and/or seminars). Students are advised to consult their external examiner before entering the competition.

Dr Miller completed his thesis at Glasgow University under the supervision of Prof. Ken Strain and Prof. Norna Robertson

The thesis is available to download from Glasgow University’s website.
http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1869/

Details of the prize, including nomination instructions for the 2012 prize, can be found at the Gravitational Physics Group’s web page.
http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/gp/prize/page_40694.html

Sincerely

Clifford M Will
Editor in Chief
Classical and Quantum Gravity

i) Fellows will be elected once every three years, prior to the GRG conferences. For the first two rounds (GR19 and GR20), at least half of the number of Fellows elected in any one round should be of 45 years or less of age on the day the conference begins.

ii) The fellowship committee for GR20 will be asked to elect 10 fellows. Thereafter, the committees will elect approximately 1.5% of the members per 3-year cycle. The precise number for each round will be established at the prior GR meeting by the Executive Committee of the Society.

The primary criterion for election is excellence in research, especially the impact of candidate’s work on the development of our field. The candidate will be generally expected to have made additional contributions to the field, for example through service, and/or outreach, and/or books and monographs, etc. In exceptional cases such criteria could constitute the primary basis of nomination provided these activities have had influence on a significant portion of our community, not just the home institution of the candidate.

Nominations are due by December 31st, 2012. Any member of the Society can make nominations but self-nominations will not be considered. The nomination packet will consist of:

i) A letter summarizing the basis for nomination;
ii) An up-to-date CV and publication list of the nominee;
iii) 1 to 3 supporting letters from members of the Society, and,
iv) A proposed citation. Once made, the nomination will remain active for two additional rounds. Further details can be found at http://www.isgrg.org/fellowrules.php

Electronic nominations in the form of emailed PDF files are strongly preferred. The nomination PDF files should be sent to the Chair of the Fellowship committee, Clifford Will (cmw[AT]wuphys.wustl.edu).

If an electronic nomination is not possible, a single paper copy of the nomination should be mailed or faxed to Clifford Will at
Department of Physics
University of Florida
P.O. Box 118440
Gainesville FL 32611-8440
Fax: 1-352-392-0524

The elected Fellows will be inducted during the Business Meeting of the Society at GR 20 in Warsaw, 8 – 13 July, 2013.

Please find the abstract and further details below.

——————
PUB.NO. lrr-2012-5
Danilishin, Stefan and Khalili, Farid Ya.
“Quantum Measurement Theory in Gravitational-Wave Detectors”

ACCEPTED: 2012-03-02
PUBLISHED: 2012-04-26

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-5

ABSTRACT:
The fast progress in improving the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave (GW) detectors, we all have witnessed in the recent years, has propelled the scientific community to the point, when quantum behaviour of such immense measurement devices as kilometer-long interferometers starts to matter. The time, when their sensitivity will be mainly limited by the quantum noise of light is round the corner, and finding the ways how to make it lower will become a necessity. Therefore the primary goal we pursued in this review was to familiarize a broad spectrum of readers with the theory of quantum measurements in the very form it finds application in the area of gravitational-wave detection. We focus on how quantum noise arises in gravitational wave interferometers and what limitations it imposes on the achievable sensitivity. We start from the very basic concepts and gradually advance to the general linear quantum measurement theory and its application to the calculation of quantum noise in the contemporary and planned interferometric detectors of gravitational radiation of the first and second generation. Special attention is paid to the concept of Standard Quantum Limit and the methods of its surmounting.

UPCOMING ARTICLES AT:
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html

Table of Contents:

1: Why quantum gravity?
2: Covariant approaches to quantum gravity
3: Parametrized and relational systems
4: Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity
5: Quantum geometrodynamics
6: Quantum gravity with connections and loops
7: Quantization of black holes
8: Quantum cosmology
9: String theory
10: Phenomenology, decoherence, and the arrow of time

For more information, see: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199585205.do

Full publication details are available at http://www.cambridge.org/9780521381154 as is a sample consisting of the first 10 pages, the index, and the full table of contents. It’s also listed on Amazon but not (yet) on Abe Books. CUP advise that stocks for the US will arrive in about 6 weeks.

The book has 636 pages and 68 black and white illustrations, many of which are also available in colour on the web page above. Extensive references (40 pages of them) are provided.

From the cover:

Cosmology has been transformed by dramatic progress in high-precision observations and theoretical modelling. This book surveys key developments and open issues for graduate students and researchers. Using a relativistic geometric approach, it focuses on the general concepts and relations that underpin the standard model of the Universe.

Part 1 covers foundations of relativistic cosmology whilst Part 2 develops the dynamical and observational relations for all models of the Universe based on general relativity. Part 3 focuses on the standard model of cosmology, including inflation, dark matter, dark energy, perturbation theory, the cosmic microwave background, structure formation and gravitational lensing. It also examines modified gravity and inhomogeneity as possible alternatives to dark energy. Anisotropic and inhomogeneous models are described in Part 4, and Part 5 reviews deeper issues, such as quantum cosmology, the start of the universe and the multiverse proposal.

This book presents in a simple style the success story of modern astrophysics — how the application of known physics to models of stars can, together with the observational data, help us understand what stars are made of, how they live and how they die. The account is non-technical but scientifically accurate. It is interspersed with anecdotes and analogies to make the subject matter readable and understandable even to a lay reader with some basic scientific background.

Contents:
- On Stars and Humans
- Light: The Storehouse of Information
- The Vital Statistics of Stars
- How Far are the Stars?
- A Star is Born
- The Secret of Stellar Energy
- The Origin of Chemical Elements
- When Stars Explode
- Very Dense Stars
- Black Holes
- Binary and Variable Stars
- The Quest Continues

Readership: Any reader interested in astronomy.

To enjoy a 25% discount, please quote NAM2012 as your discount code when you make your purchase. This offer is valid till end of April 2012.

ABSTRACT (Abridged)
The Chalonge 15th Paris Cosmology Colloquium 2011 was held on 20-22 July in the historic Paris Observatory’s Perrault building, in the Chalonge School spirit combining real cosmological/astrophysical data and hard theory predictive approach connected to them in the Warm Dark Matter Standard Model of the Universe: News and reviews from Herschel, QUIET, Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), South Pole Telescole (SPT), Planck, PIXIE, the JWST, UFFO, KATRIN and MARE experiments; astrophysics, particle and nuclear physics warm dark matter (DM) searches and galactic observations, related theory and simulations, with the aim of synthesis, progress and clarification.
Philippe Andre, Peter Biermann, Pasquale Blasi, Daniel Boyanovsky, Carlo Burigana, Hector de Vega, Joanna Dunkley, Gerry Gilmore, Alexander Kashlinsky, Alan Kogut, Anthony Lasenby, John Mather, Norma Sanchez, Alexei Smirnov, Sylvaine Turck-Chieze present here their highlights of the Colloquium. Ayuki Kamada and Sinziana Paduroiu present here their poster highlights.

LambdaWDM (Warm Dark Matter) is progressing impressively over LambdaCDM whose galactic scale crisis and decline are staggering. The International School Daniel Chalonge issued an statement of strong support to the James Webb Space Telescope (JSWT). The Daniel Chalonge Medal 2011 was awarded to John C. Mather, Science PI of the JWST. Summary and conclusions are presented by H. J. de Vega, M. C. Falvella and N. G. Sanchez.

Overall, LambdaWDM and keV scale DM particles deserve dedicated astronomical and laboratory experimental searches, theoretical work and simulations. KATRIN experiment in the future could perhaps adapt its set-up to look to keV scale sterile neutrinos. It will be a a fantastic discovery to detect dark matter in a beta decay. Photos of the Colloquium are included. (Abridged)

We thank all again, both lecturers and participants, for having contributed so much to this Colloquium and look forward to seeing you again in a next Meeting of this series.

With Compliments and kind regards

Norma G Sanchez, Hector J de Vega

http://chalonge.obspm.fr

Please find the abstract and further details below.

——————
PUB.NO. lrr-2012-4
Jaranowski, Piotr A. and Królak, Andrzej
“Gravitational-Wave Data Analysis. Formalism and Applications: The Gaussian Case”

ACCEPTED: 2012-02-14
PUBLISHED: 2012-03-09

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-4

ABSTRACT:
The article reviews the statistical theory of signal detection in application to analysis of deterministic gravitational-wave signals in the noise of a detector. Statistical foundations for the theory of signal detection and parameter estimation are presented. Several tools needed for both theoretical evaluation of the optimal data analysis methods and for their practical implementation are introduced. They include optimal signal-to-noise ratio, Fisher matrix, false alarm and detection probabilities, ℱ-statistic, template placement, and fitting factor. These tools apply to the case of signals buried in a stationary and Gaussian noise. Algorithms to efficiently implement the optimal data analysis techniques are discussed. Formulas are given for a general gravitational-wave signal that includes as special cases most of the deterministic signals of interest.

UPCOMING ARTICLES AT:
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html

This book comprises expository articles on different aspects of gravitation and cosmology that are aimed at graduate students. The topics discussed are of contemporary interest assuming only an elementary introduction to gravitation and cosmology. The presentations are to a certain extent pedagogical in nature, and the material developed is not usually found in sufficient detail in recent textbooks in these areas.

Contents:
- Non-Linear Gravitational Clustering in an Expanding Universe
- Dark Ages and Cosmic Reionization
- Probing Fundamental Constant Evolution with Redshifted Spectral Lines
- Averaging the Inhomogeneous Universe
- Probing Cosmic Magnetic Fields with the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
- Quantum Corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking Entropy
- Quantum Measurement and Quantum Gravity: Many Worlds or Collapse of the Wave Function?
- Generation and Evolution of Perturbations During Inflation and Reheating
- Patterns in Neural Processing

Readership: Graduate students and researchers interested in the areas of gravitation and cosmology.

Please quote *NAM2012* as a discount code to enjoy 25% discount from now till April 2012 when you purchase a book from our collection.

Eric Gourgoulhon
Springer, 2012
294 pages

Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Basic Differential Geometry
3. Geometry of Hypersurfaces
4. Geometry of Foliations
5. 3+1 Decomposition of Einstein Equation
6. 3+1 Equations for Matter and Electromagnetic Field
7. Conformal Decomposition
8. Asymptotic Flatness and Global Quantities
9. The Initial Data Problem
10. Choice of Foliation and Spatial Coordinates
11. Evolution Schemes
A. Conformal Killing Operator and Conformal Vector Laplacian
B. Sage Codes

More details at http://relativite.obspm.fr/3p1

Please find the abstract and further details below.

——————
PUB.NO. lrr-2012-3
Simón, Joan
“Brane Effective Actions, Kappa-Symmetry and Applications”

ACCEPTED: 2012-01-09
PUBLISHED: 2012-02-27

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-3

ABSTRACT:
This is a review on brane effective actions, their symmetries and some of its applications. Its first part uncovers the Green-Schwarz formulation of single M- and D-brane effective actions focusing on kinematical aspects: the identification of their degrees of freedom, the importance of world volume diffeomorphisms and kappa symmetry, to achieve manifest spacetime covariance and supersymmetry, and the explicit construction of such actions in arbitrary on-shell supergravity backgrounds.

Its second part deals with applications. First, the use of kappa symmetry to determine supersymmetric world volume solitons. This includes their explicit construction in flat and curved backgrounds, their interpretation as BPS states carrying (topological) charges in the supersymmetry algebra and the connection between supersymmetry and Hamiltonian BPS bounds. When available, I emphasise the use of these solitons as constituents in microscopic models of black holes. Second, the use of probe approximations to infer about non-trivial dynamics of strongly coupled gauge theories using the AdS/CFT correspondence. This includes expectation values of Wilson loop operators, spectrum information and the general use of D-brane probes to approximate the dynamics of systems with small number of degrees of freedom interacting with larger systems allowing a dual gravitational description.

Its final part briefly discusses effective actions for N D-branes and M2-branes. This includes both SYM theories, their higher order corrections and partial results in covariantising these couplings to curved backgrounds, and the more recent supersymmetric Chern–Simons matter theories describing M2-branes using field theory, brane constructions and 3-algebra considerations.

UPCOMING ARTICLES AT:
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html

The Jürgen Ehlers thesis prize is sponsored by Springer, publishers of the Society’s journal “General Relativity and Gravitation”, and will cover the areas of mathematical and numerical general relativity and gravitation in a broad sense. The Bergmann-Wheeler thesis prize is sponsored by the UK Institute of Physics, publishers of “Classical and Quantum Gravity”, and will encompass all approaches to quantum gravity.

The Society seeks nominations for both prizes for award in 2013. The deadline for receipt of the nomination packet is September 30th, 2012. The nominator must be a member of the Society. Nominators can make at most one nomination in each category. The nominee need not be a member of the Society but the official defense must have taken place between October 1, 2009 and September 30th, 2012. The nomination package will consist of:

i) A nomination letter summarizing the main results and their importance and elaborating the student’s role in case of joint work.

ii) A PDF file of the thesis, and of any supporting papers which formed an integral part of the thesis submission. (For any such paper, reference to a readily available public source is acceptable instead.)

iii) A CV and the publication list of the nominee.

iv) An official University document showing the date of the successful Ph.D. defense. (This can be sent later, if not available by September 30th, 2012.)

v) One or two optional letters in support from experts. At least one of these is required if the nominator is a supervisor of the Ph.D. thesis.

The primary criteria for selection will be the high quality of scientific results, creativity and originality, and the significance of results for the broad area of the prize. The winner for each prize will be chosen by a committee of leading international experts in the field approximately six months before the GR20 conference which will be held in Warsaw on 8-12 July 2013. This will provide the winners ample time to plan travel to the conference. The prize is conditional to the winner attending the conference (the Executive committee of the GRG Society may allow the prize to be given in absentia in exceptional cases.)

Nominations for the Bergman-Wheeler prize should be submitted electronically, possibly packaged in a single email, to the address gravity[AT]cpt.univ-mrs.fr.  If it is not possible to send a nomination in electronic form, please send 4 hard copies to Carlo Rovelli, CPT-CNRS, Case 907, av. de Luminy, F-13288, Marseille Cedex 9, France.

Nominations for the Ehlers prize should be submitted electronically to Bernd Brügmann, c/o Renate Wagner Renate.Wagner[AT]uni-jena.de.  If it is not possible to send a nomination in electronic form, please send 4 hard copies to Renate Wagner, Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany

I regret having to inform you that Franco Pacini died in Florence.

Just before the discovery of the first pulsar (Hewish et al. 1968), Franco Pacini published a paper in Nature (vol. 216, 1967, p.567) on a possible emission mechanism which could power the Crab nebula. He proposed a rapidly rotating neutron star with a strong magnetic field emitting dipole radiation. After the discovery of the first pulsar, Pacini (1968) and Gold (1968), independently, suggested that pulsars are rotating neutron stars.

Best regards
Ignazio Bombaci

Please find the abstract and further details below.

——————
PUB.NO. lrr-2012-2
Winicour, Jeffrey
“Characteristic Evolution and Matching”

ACCEPTED: 2012-01-04
PUBLISHED: 2012-01-25

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-2

ABSTRACT:
I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress in characteristic evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a binary black hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at simulating all aspects of the binary black hole problem inside an artificially constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in this direction is discussed.

——————
PUB.NO. lrr-2012-1
Newman, Ezra Ted and Kozameh, Carlos and Adamo, Timothy M.
“Null Geodesic Congruences, Asymptotically-Flat Spacetimes and Their Physical Interpretation”

ACCEPTED: 2012-01-16
PUBLISHED: 2012-01-24

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-1

ABSTRACT:
A priori, there is nothing very special about shear-free or asymptotically shear-free null geodesic congruences. Surprisingly, however, they turn out to possess a large number of fascinating geometric properties and to be closely related, in the context of general relativity, to a variety of physically significant effects. It is the purpose of this paper to try to fully develop these issues.

This work starts with a detailed exposition of the theory of shear-free and asymptotically shear-free null geodesic congruences, i.e., congruences with shear that vanishes at future conformal null infinity. A major portion of the exposition lies in the analysis of the space of regular shear-free and asymptotically shear-free null geodesic congruences. This analysis leads to the space of complex analytic curves in an auxiliary four-complex dimensional space, H-space. They in turn play a dominant role in the applications.

The applications center around the problem of extracting interior physical properties of an asymptotically-flat spacetime directly from the asymptotic gravitational (and Maxwell) field itself, in analogy with the determination of total charge by an integral over the Maxwell field at infinity or the identification of the interior mass (and its loss) by (Bondi’s) integrals of the Weyl tensor, also at infinity.

More specifically, we will see that the asymptotically shear-free congruences lead us to an asymptotic definition of the center-of-mass and its equations of motion. This includes a kinematic meaning, in terms of the center-of-mass motion, for the Bondi three-momentum. In addition, we obtain insights into intrinsic spin and, in general, angular momentum, including an angular-momentum–conservation law with well-defined flux terms. When a Maxwell field is present, the asymptotically shear-free congruences allow us to determine/define at infinity a center-of-charge world line and intrinsic magnetic dipole moment.

UPCOMING ARTICLES AT:
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html

The goal of this workshop is to plan and prepare for the era of advanced detectors. The workshop will consists of a few plenary overview talks, intended to set the stage for discussion about theoretical framework, data analysis techniques and implementation, to get the most out of the detections we expect this decade. The workshop will be structured relatively informally with focus sessions on gravitational wave bursts, compact binary systems, stochastic background, and continuous waves. A dedicated website will be set up later for this workshop with a registration page, but there will be no registration costs.

Simultaneously with the workshop, MSU’s Gravity Group, in collaboration with MSU’s Music Dept, MSU’s Art and Film Dept and Princeton’s Astrophysics Dept, will be putting together a one-week, outreach event entitled “Celebrating Einstein” on April 1st–6th, 2013. This event will consist of several public talks, an arts exhibit and two multimedia performances, featuring gravitational wave sounds and simulations by the numerical relativity community. All events are free and we encourage all to attend.

For more information: Nico Yunes (nyunes[AT]physics.montana.edu)

The main references to eLISA(NGO) are available. It is the new ESA space-based gravitational wave detector, candidate for L1 mission in Cosmic Vision framework.

Mission name: ‎”eLISA(NGO)  – Revealing a hidden Universe: opening a new chapter of discovery”

- paper (science case): http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.3621
- website: http://www.elisa-ngo.org/
- Yellow Book (ESA document): https://lisa-light.aei.mpg.de/lisa-light/pub/ScienceWorkingTeam/YellowBook/YB_reduced.pdf

i) Fellows will be elected once every three years, prior to the GRG conferences. For the first two rounds (GR19 and GR20), at least half of the number of Fellows elected in any one round should be of 45 years or less of age on the day the conference begins.

ii) The fellowship committee for GR20 will be asked to elect 10 fellows. Thereafter, the committees will elect approximately 1.5% of the members per 3-year cycle. The precise number for each round will be established at the prior GR meeting by the Executive Committee of the Society.

The primary criterion for election is excellence in research, especially the impact of candidate’s work on the development of our field. The candidate will be generally expected to have made additional contributions to the field, for example through service, and/or outreach, and/or books and monographs, etc. In exceptional cases such criteria could constitute the primary basis of nomination provided these activities have had influence on a significant portion of our community, not just the home institution of the candidate.

Nominations are due by December 31st, 2012. Any member of the Society can make nominations but self-nominations will not be considered. The nomination packet will consist of:

i) A letter summarizing the basis for nomination;
ii) An up-to-date CV and publication list of the nominee;
iii) 1 to 3 supporting letters from members of the Society, and,
iv) A proposed citation. Once made, the nomination will remain active for two additional rounds. Further details can be found at http://www.isgrg.org/fellowrules.php

Electronic nominations in the form of emailed PDF files are strongly preferred. The nomination PDF files should be sent to the Chair of the Fellowship committee, Clifford Will (cmw[AT]wuphys.wustl.edu).

If an electronic nomination is not possible, a single paper copy of the nomination should be mailed or faxed to Clifford Will at

Department of Physics, Campus Box 1105
Washington University
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis MO 63130 USA
Fax: 1-314-935-9200

The elected Fellows will be inducted during the Business Meeting of the Society at GR 20 in Warsaw, 8 – 13 July, 2013.

(1) The Trustees of the Gravity Research Foundation will make these Awards on May 15, 2012 for the best well-written essays, 1500 words or less (excluding abstracts, diagrams, references and minimal equations), on the subject of gravitation, its theory, applications, or effects.

(2) The First Award will be $4000.00
The Second Award will be 1250.00
The Third Award will be 1000.00
The Fourth Award will be 750.00
The Fifth Award will be 500.00

(3) Essays must be in English and e-mailed in a single PDF file before April 1, 2012. Early submission is desirable. One essay only will be accepted from each author. Notify us within 24 hours if you do not receive an e-mail confirmation of your submission.

(4) Title pages should include essay title; authors’ names, complete mailing and e-mail addresses; submission date; an abstract of 125 words or less; and the statement: “Essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2012 Awards for Essays on Gravitation.” Pages should be numbered.

(5) The decision of the judges will be final and no reviews will be provided.

(6) Please check the list of winners to be posted on our website: http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org around May 15, 2012. We will attempt to send all participants a general e-mail notification.

(7) The five award-winning essays will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Modern Physics D (IJMPD). Authors of essays designated Honorable Mention will be invited to submit their essays to the IJMPD where these may undergo additional refereeing at editorial discretion for possible publication. Authors of all other essays are free and encouraged to publish their essays after May 15th.

Submission e-mail address: George M. Rideout, Jr., President (grideoutjr[AT]aol.com)

Gravity Research Foundation
PO BOX 81389
Welleesley Hills MA 02481-0004
USA

Recent First Award Winners:
2011 – Ivan Agullo, Penn State and Leonard Parker, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2010 – Mark Van Raamsdonk, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
2009 – Alexander Burinskii, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
2008 – T. Padmanabhan, IUCAA, Pune, India
2007 – S. Carlip, University of California at Davis
2006 – Vijay Balasubramanian, University of Pennsylvania; Donald Marolf, University of California at Santa Barbara and Moshe Rozali, University of British Columbia
2005 – John Ellis, CERN; N. E. Mavromatos, King’s College London and D. V. Nanopoulos, Texas A and M University
2004 – Maulik Parikh, Columbia University, New York
2003 – Martin Bojowald, The Pennsylvania State University
2002 – Steven B. Giddings, University of California at Santa Barbara and Stanford University, Stanford, California
2001 – Csaba Csaki and Joshua Erlich, Los Alamos National Lab and Christophe Grojean, University of California at Berkeley
2000 – Arthur Lue and Erick J. Weinberg, Columbia University, New York
1999 – John Ellis, CERN; N. E. Mavromatos, University of Oxford and D. V. Nanopoulos, Texas A and M University
1998 – Viqar Husain, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
1997 – Robert Myers, McGill University, Quebec

Leon Rosenfeld (1904-1974) was a remarkable, many-sided physicist of exceptional erudition. He was at the centre of modern physics and was well-known as Niels Bohr’s close collaborator and spokesman. He also reflected deeply on the history and philosophy of science and its social role from a leftist perspective. His biography illuminates the development, popularization, and reception of quantum physics and its interpretation in addition to the development of the political Left. The book draws extensively from previously untapped, unpublished sources in more than five languages.

This book is for students and professionals studying the history of science.

360pp (approx.)
Publication date: March 2012
ISBN: 978-981-4307-81-9

This is a graduate-level textbook.

Authors: Jolien D. E. Creighton, Warren G. Anderson.
Publisher: Wiley-VCH (Weinheim, Germany)
ISBN: 978-3-527-40886-3

Published in Syracuse Post Standard on June 5, 2011

The Gravitational Wave International Committee (GWIC) was formed to promote international collaboration and cooperation in the construction, operation and use of gravitational wave detection facilities world-wide. To this end, GWIC has established an annual prize for the outstanding Ph.D. thesis based on research in gravitational waves (http://gwic.ligo.org/thesisprize/).

Members of the gravitational wave community are invited to nominate students who have performed notable research on any aspect of gravitational wave science. Theses will be judged on 1) originality and creativity of the research, 2) importance to the field of gravitational waves and gravitational wave detection, broadly interpreted, and 3) clarity of presentation. The recipient will receive a certificate of recognition and a prize of $1,000.

Since 2010, GWIC has an arrangement with Springer Publishing. Subject to qualifying criteria, the prize-winning thesis will be nominated for Springer Theses, a new book series in which exceptional Ph.D. theses in the physical sciences are published in their entirety. The winner will receive an additional €500 from Springer upon publication.

Eligibility: The award is made on a calendar year basis. Theses should have been accepted by their institutions between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011. It is expected that many of the nominations will come from the member projects of GWIC, but this is not a requirement. Nominated theses may be in any language. A committee selected from the gravitational wave community will evaluate the nominations and select the winner. The selection committee will make all determinations about eligibility.

Nominations: Nominations should be submitted to the selection committee chair (Neil Cornish, cornish[AT]physics.montana.edu) by 15 January 2012. The nomination package consists of (i) the thesis, (ii) a letter of nomination, preferably from the thesis advisor, and (iii) an optional supporting letter from another scientist familiar with the work. The nomination and supporting letters should describe the importance of the research and how it supports GWIC’s goals to promote construction and exploitation of gravitational-wave detectors, foster development of new or enhanced gravitational-wave detectors, and support the development of gravitational-waves as an astronomical tool. The thesis and letters may be submitted in electronic form (preferred) or in hard-copy (five copies).

Please find the abstract and further details below.

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PUB.NO. lrr-2011-8
Solodukhin, Sergey N.
“Entanglement Entropy of Black Holes”

ACCEPTED: 2011-08-23
PUBLISHED: 2011-10-21

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2011-8

ABSTRACT:
The entanglement entropy is a fundamental quantity which characterizes the correlations between sub-systems in a larger quantum-mechanical system. For two sub-systems separated by a surface the entanglement entropy is proportional to the area of the surface and depends on the UV cutoff which regulates the short-distance correlations. The geometrical nature of the entanglement entropy calculation is particularly intriguing when applied to black holes when the entangling surface is the black hole horizon. I review a variety of aspects of this calculation: the useful mathematical tools such as the geometry of spaces with conical singularities and the heat kernel method, the UV divergences in the entropy and their renormalization, the logarithmic terms in the entanglement entropy in four and six dimensions and their relation to the conformal anomalies. The focus in the review is on the systematic use of the conical singularity method. The relations to other known approaches such as ‘t Hooft’s brick wall model and the Euclidean path integral in the optical metric are discussed in detail. The puzzling behavior of the entanglement entropy due to fields which non-minimally couple to gravity is emphasized. The holographic description of the entanglement entropy of the black hole horizon is illustrated on the two- and four-dimensional examples. Finally, I examine the possibility to interpret the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy entirely as the entanglement entropy.

UPCOMING ARTICLES AT:
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html

It is my pleasure to announce the publication of Classical and Quantum Gravity’s Highlights of 2010-2011. These articles were selected by the Editorial Board of Classical and Quantum Gravity (CQG) and represent some of the most interesting recent work in gravitational physics.

http://bit.ly/raNBFt

Articles featured in past CQG Highlights have been highly cited and are frequently downloaded. All selected articles will be free to download until the end of 2012.

The list includes fast-track communications, research papers, review articles and special issue contributions published between May 2010 and June 2011.

Be sure to pick up a copy of the latest CQG Highlights Brochure which will be available at gravitational physics meetings throughout 2012. The brochure contains summaries of all the highlighted articles as well as details of the journal’s ongoing activities including prize sponsorships and forthcoming special issues.

I invite you to submit your work to CQG and hope to see it promoted as a CQG Highlight in the future.

With best wishes

Ben Sheard
Publishing Editor
Classical and Quantum Gravity

This book is an introduction to the General Relativity Theory (GRT) and to the solution of the Pioneers Anomaly by means of relativistic cosmology, a study that is designed to be understood by undergraduate and graduate students alike in the fields of theoretical physics, applied mathematics and space engineering. In fact, this book is the first elementary account of GRT and cosmology to address the NASA problem, which consists of a specific deceleration suffered by two space-probes launched to outer space more than thirty years ago. The other two NASA anomalies, which are, the spin-down of the Pioneers, when they were not disturbed, and the “fly-by” of spacecraft in gravity assists, around the Earth, are explained by Berman, along with the linear deceleration, by the rotation of the Universe, and General Relativity theory.

Pub. Date: 2011 4th quarter
Author: Marcelo Samuel Berman (Instituto Albert Einstein/Latinamerica, Curitiba, Brazil)
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers, New York
ISBN: 978-1-62100-107-2

“Realization of Einstein’s Machian Program”

This book is a solution of the so-called Einstein’s Machian Program, that left Einstein very angry and frustrated, for he was unable to reconcile Relativity Theories with Ernst Mach ideas, that by looking into the Cosmos as a whole, absolute motion could be found. About one hundred years ago, the discussion led to no conclusions among physicists, so that now Berman found that the existence of a Universal rotation, was compatible with General Relativity, and that this rotation is “absolute”. Berman thus solved the problem.

Author: Marcelo Samuel Berman (Instituto Albert Einstein/Latinamerica, Curitiba, Brazil).
Pub. Date: 2012 1st Quarter
publisher: Nova Science Publishers, New York
ISBN: 978-1-61942-164-6

Gravitational wave astronomy is coming, thanks to the LIGO and Virgo advanced detectors that will be online at or after 2015. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration will release open data to the broader community, including rapid alerts for follow-up observation, and the detected strain corresponding to astrophysical detections. In order to make the open data program most useful to astronomers, LIGO is asking you to fill in a survey about what you see as most important for us to support.

Please take a few minutes to fill in the survey on LIGO Open Data at the link below. You don’t have to answer all the questions. We really appreciate your time and thoughts.

Thank you
Patrick Brady
Roy Williams
LIGO Scientific Collaboration

“Warm Dark Matter in Galaxies: Theoretical and Observational Progresses”,
Meudon Castle/CIAS of Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France, 8, 9 and 10 JUNE 2011

HIGHLIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE WORKSHOP

We are pleased to inform you that the Highlights and Conclusions of the Chalonge Meudon Workshop 2011 on Warm Dark Matter in the Galaxies (48 pages, 24 figures including photos of the workshop) are available on the web site of this Workshop

http://www.chalonge.obspm.fr/Cias_Meudon2011.html

ABSTRACT (Abridged):

Warm Dark Matter (WDM) research is progressing fast, the subject is new and WDM essentially works, naturally reproducing the astronomical observations over all scales: small (galactic) and large (cosmological) scales (LambdaWDM). Evidence that Cold Dark Matter (LambdaCDM) and its proposed tailored cures do not work at small scales is staggering.

Fedor Bezrukov, Pier-Stefano Corasaniti, Hector J. de Vega, Stefano Ettori, Frederic Hessmann, Ayuki Kamada, Marco Lombardi, Alexander Merle, Christian Moni Bidin, Angelo Nucciotti on behalf of the MARE collaboration, Sinziana Paduroiu, Henri Plana, Norma Sanchez, Patrick Valageas, Shun Zhou present here their highlights of the Workshop. LambdaWDM simulations with keV particles remarkably reproduce the observations, small and large structures and velocity functions. Cored DM halos and WDM are clearly determined from theory and astronomical observations, they naturally produce the observed structures at all scales. keV sterile neutrinos are the leading candidates, they naturally appear extensions of the standard model of particle physics. Astrophysical constraints including Lyman alpha bounds put its mass in the range 1< m <13 keV. Predictions for EUCLID and PLANCK have been presented. MARE and an adapted KATRIN experiment could detect a keV sterile neutrino. It will be a fantastic discovery to detect dark matter in a beta decay. A formidable WDM work to perform is ahead of us, these highlights point out some relevant research directions to put the effort. Photos of the Workshop are included.

We thank all again, both lecturers and participants, for having contributed so much to this Workshop and look forward to seeing you again in a next Meeting of this series.

With Compliments and kind regards

Norma G Sanchez,
Hector J de Vega
http://chalonge.obspm.fr

A graduate of the University of Pavia, Giulio Rampa, in his short life, had a profound impact on his fellow students and the faculty of the Department of Nuclear and Theoretical Physics of the University of Pavia. Following his Master in Physics, he soon entered Graduate School at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, (Albert Einstein Institute), Potsdam where he became deeply interested in mathematical relativity. Known for his remarkable personality as well as his outstanding intellectual capability, Giulio Rampa’s life is celebrated through this prize honouring an outstanding Ph.D. Thesis in mathematical or numerical general relativity.

A net monetary prize of 2,000 EUR will be awarded every two years to a graduate student for outstanding research in mathematical or numerical general relativity. The prize has been established in 2011, and is endowed under the terms of a bequest from Nadia and Giorgio Rampa.

Any student who graduated in a university or research centre in Europe is eligible to be considered for this prize. European citizenship is NOT required. The prize recipient’s Ph.D. Thesis must be submitted for consideration by a nominator, preferably via e-mail, to:

Secretariat of The Rampa Prize Committee,
c/o Department of Nuclear and Theoretical Physics,
Via Bassi 6, 27100 Pavia, Italy
e-mail: rampa.prize[AT]pv.infn.it

Self nominations will not be considered. It is the nominator’s responsibility to ensure that his/her candidate submits the required documentation. In particular, all nominated applicants must submit, preferably by e-mail, the application form (available from the above address), a copy of the thesis, a letter of recommendation from their thesis advisor, one or more letters of endorsement substantiating the candidate contributions, thesis reader comments, a one-page abstract of the thesis, and a C.V. to the above address.

The following criteria are reviewed when selecting the Giulio Rampa prize recipient: (i) Originality of Contribution, (ii) Breadth of Work, (iii) Publications, (iv) Quality of Nomination, (v) Quality of Endorsement. The recipients of the prize are to be selected by a standing joint committee of the Graduate School in Physics of The University of Pavia and of The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Potsdam.

The decisions of the Committee are final and will be communicated by May the 31st, 2012. The 2012 prize will be awarded to a Ph. D. Thesis submitted for consideration no later than January 31, 2012, on behalf of students who graduated between January 2010-December 2011.