Snapshots of 24th IAGRG at Jamia Millia Islamia  

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Purpose of this meeting

In the past decade there has been great activity in the area of general theory of relativity and cosmology. Issues related to quantum gravity, gravity waves, black hole physics, cosmological inflation and dark energy are under active investigation. Both string theory and loop quantum gravity, two different approaches to quantum gravity, have shown interesting results. In string theory, D-brane dynamics can lead to interesting models of inflation and dark energy. The string inspired modification of gravity might shed light on past and future singularities. In loop quantum cosmology results on the avoidance of singularities are encouraging.

The standard paradigm in cosmology assumes a mechanism leading to inflation at early epochs and requires around 30 percent of dark matter and 70 percent of dark energy. The nature and origin of dark energy and dark matter remain unknown to us. It is quite possible that there is no dark energy and dark matter; perhaps the large scale modifications of gravity could mimic these effects.

Classical issues like gravitational waves continue to make steady progress in both theory as well as experiment. Several groups around the world are looking for a signal of gravitational waves to settle the question of their existence. A lot of new physics from these waves is also expected.

The IAGRG meeting 2007 would discuss these issues.