Vladimir A. Belinski studied at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, where he completed his doctorate and worked until 1990. Currently he is Research Supervisor by special appointment at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Rome, specialising in General Relativity, Cosmology and Nonlinear Physics. He is best known for two scientific results, firstly the proof that there is an infinite curvature singularity in the general solution of Einstein equations, and the discovery of the chaotic oscillatory structure of this singularity, known as the BKL singularity (1968-75, with I. M. Khalatnikov and E. M. Lifshitz), and secondly the formulation of the Inverse Scattering Method in General Relativity and the discovery of gravitational solitons (1977-82, with V. E. Zakharov).
Preface
1. Inverse scattering technique in gravity
2. General properties of gravitational solitons
3. Einstein-Maxwell fields
4. Cosmology: diagonal metrics from Kasner
5. Cosmology: nondiagonal metrics and perturbed FLRW
6. Cylindrical symmetry
7. Plane waves and colliding plane waves
8. Axial symmetry
Bibliography
Index.
