small pl CAMK logo

Journal Club



09.05.2016

"From Birth to Death of Protoplanetary Disks: Modelling Their Formation, Evolution, and Dispersal"

Ananda Deepika Bollimpalli (CAMK, Warsaw)

Based on Kimura et al. arXiv:1604.05842


16.05.2016

"Gravitational Thought Experiments"

Donald Lynden-Bell (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge)

Whereas Maxwell's Electrodynamics was the culmination of a long series of experiments by Franklin, Priestley, Coulomb, Volta, Ampere and Faraday, Einstein produced General Relativity from a few guiding principles such as Causality and the Principle of Equivalence. The discovery of dark energy as a dominant force in Astronomy makes us consider the gravitational forces not merely due to mass but also those due to stress and due to currents of energy, currents of momentum and of currents of angular momentum. We do this by assuming Einstein's theory and working out the results of thought experiments analogous to the real experiments made in electricity. Analogies with Electricity are discussed and Bonnor's beautiful 1969 paper on the gravity of a light ray is analysed to give an alternative derivation of the light-bending formula.


23.05.2016

"The Big Alien Theory"

Katarzyna Drozd (CAMK, Warsaw)

Based on Simpson, MNRAS (2016)