Selected Papers: The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes and of Colliding Plane Waves, Vol. 6 FROM THE PUBLISHER
S. Chandrasekhar on black holes and gravitational waves: What a story! Forty years after his pioneer investigations, Chandra returned to the study of the dead stars. He had told us back in 1931 that massive stars could not die as ordinary objects, consisting of regular matter, could. Eddington would rebuff the idea as absurd; the scientific community would side mostly with Eddington; and, although the Schwarzschild solution was waiting around for its correct interpretation, the development of black holes would be delayed by a few decades. So, although all the ingredients were there and we did not have to wait too long, it was not until the sixties that we would incorporate black holes into our world view.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
A beautiful and valuable editorial project brought (at least temporarily) to conclusion. The work contains a total of 37 papers under five topical heads and several subheads. The papers were written between 1975 and 1990, several with collaborators, among them Basilis Xanthopoulos, who wrote the gracefully informative Foreword (and who, we are informed in a touching remembrance by Chandrasekhar himself, "was shot to death in an unspeakable act of violence on the evening of November 27, 1990, while he was giving a seminar..."). The work here reprinted, though frequently quite detailed, reveals on every page the "luminosity" which adds delight to the enduring value of Chandrasekhar's work. Paper edition (unseen), $35. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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