Abstract
It is an honour and a pleasure to associate myself to the celebration of the very fruitful career of Yvonne Choquet—Bruhat in the field of mathematical physics. Being neither a mathematician nor a mathematical physicist, I am incompetent for writing about the mathematical impact of her work. However, as a physicist I am deeply convinced of the importance of mathematics and mathematical physics in the scientific description of reality. 1 view physics as a buffer zone between “reality” and mathematics. If we consider the side of physics turned towards reality, there are no definite criteria allowing one to decide when physics succeeds in making a close contact with reality, i.e. in uncovering some definite physical “truth”. The link between physics and reality may well be of the nature of a regressio ad infinitum. On the other hand, if we consider the side of physics turned towards mathematics, it is essential to the consistency and meaning of the whole scientific endeaviour that this side establish a close contact with mathematical physics (defined as the outer layer of mathematics aimed towards the physics buffer). Any gap at the physics-mathematical-physics interface is an unacceptable break of continuity in the scientific representation of reality. In the present contribution, I will discuss some examples (taken within the context of general relativity and its generalisations) where the work of Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat has played a crucial role in providing tools or models for closing such gaps.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Y. Fourès-Bruhat, Acta Math. 88, 141 (1952).
D. Christodoulou and B.G. Schmidt, Commun. Math. Phys. 68, 275 (1979).
T. Damour and B. Schmidt, J. Math. Phys. 31, 2441 (1990).
Y. Choquet-Bruhat, Uspekhi Mat. Nauk. 29, 314 (1976).
A.D. Rendall, Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. A 427, 221 (1990).
H. Friedrich, Commun. Math. Phys. 91, 445 (1983); 107, 587 (1986).
Y. Choquet-Bruhat and M. Novello, C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 305, série II, 155 (1987).
L. Blanchet and T. Damour, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. A 320, 379 (1986).
H. Whitney, Annals Math. 37, 645 (1936).
P.D. D’Eath, Phys. Rev. D 11, 2183 (1975).
T. Damour, in Gravitational Radiation, edited by N. Deruelle and T. Piran (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1983), pp. 59–144.
T. Damour, M. Soffel and C. Xu, Phys. Rev. D 43, 3273 (1991); 45, 1017 (1992).
A. Einstein, The Meaning of Relativity (5th edition) (Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1955); for more references see M.A. Tonnelat, La Théorie du Champ Unifié d’Einstein (Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1955).
T. Damour, S. Deser and J. McCarthy, Phys. Rev. D45, R3289 (1992); Phys. Rev. D, 15 January 1993.
A. Lichnérowicz, Théories Relativistes de la Gravitation et de l’Electromagnétisme (Masson, Paris, 1955).
R.B. Mann and J.W. Moffat, Phys. Rev. D31, 2488 (1985); for more references see J.W. Moffat, in Gravitation 1990: A Banff Summer School,edited by R.B. Mann and P. Wesson (World Scientific, Singapore, 1991).
F. Maurer-Tison, Ann. Scient. Ec. Norm. Sup. 76, 185 (1959).
J. Vaillant, C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 253, 231 (1961); 253, 1909 (1961).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Damour, T. (1994). On some links between mathematical physics and physics in the context of general relativity. In: Flato, M., Kerner, R., Lichnerowicz, A. (eds) Physics on Manifolds. Mathematical Physics Studies, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1938-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1938-2_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4857-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1938-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive