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Relativistic astrophysics, cosmology (classical and quantum), gravitational wave physics, and quantum gravity are all likely to produce interesting science in the beginning of the next century. For example, there is currently a world-wide effort to detect gravitational waves. This will open up a new window on the universe. It is important to recall that essentially everything we know about the universe comes from electromagnetic waves, and some interesting regions are simply opaque to this radiation. Gravitational waves offer us an entirely new medium with which to observe the universe.
There is currently considerable theoretical work underway to predict the gravitational wave forms from various sources, and further theoretical work will be necessary when the waves are finally discovered. There have also been major advances in numerical relativity. This includes simulations of black hole mergers and the discovery of qualitatively new effects, such as critical phenomena in the formation of black holes.
The relativity group is involved in research in both classical and quantum gravity. Doug Eardley is interested in understanding the progress and outcome of gravitational collapse. Do black holes always form, or could there be ``naked singularities" which are visible to distant observers? What gravitational radiation is produced by realistic astrophysical sources? Gary Horowitz is investigating string theory as a fundamental theory of quantum gravity, and semi-classical quantum gravitational effects such as the quantum pair creation of charged black holes in a background electric field. Recently, there has been a breakthrough in understanding quantum properties of black holes using string theory, and Horowitz is actively involved in developing these results. James Hartle is exploring quantum cosmology, which is the effort to provide a fundamental theory of the quantum initial condition of the universe and a formulation of quantum theory that is adequate to treat cosmology.
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