The Penrose Transform and Its Applications (v. 1) (Pitman Research Notes in Mathematics Series) - Softcover

Mason, L. J.; Hughston, L. P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0582004667 ISBN 13: 9780582004665

Publisher: Longman Higher Education, 1990

Synopsis

Twistor theory is the mathematical framework that was discovered by Roger Penrose in the course of research into gravitation and quantum theory. It has since developed into a broad many-faceted programme that attempts to resolve basic problems in physics by encoding the structure of physical fields and indeed space-time itself into the complex analytic geometry of twistor space. Twistor theory has applications in areas of mathematics and mathematical physics. These include powerful techniques for the solution of self-duality equations both for the Yang-Mills and the Einstein equations, new approaches to the representation theory of Lie groups and the quasi-local definition of mass in general relativity, to name but a few. This volume, "The Penrose transform and its applications" and its companion volume, "Twistors in curved space-time", comprise an abundance of new material, including a collection of "Twistor Newsletter" articles written over a period of ten years. These trace the development of the twistor programme and its applications over that period and offer an overview on the current status of various aspects of the programme.

The articles have been written in an informal and easy-to-read style and have been arranged by the editors into chapters which have been supplemented with detailed introductions, making the volumes self-contained and accessible to graduate students and non-specialists from other fields.

Edition details

• Publisher: Longman Higher Education
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0582004667
• ISBN 13: 9780582004665
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400