Bøger i Progress in Mathematical Physics serien

This is an introductory book on the general theory of relativity based partly on lectures given to students of M.Sc. The second part builds the ma- ematical background and the third part deals with topics where mathematics developed in the second part is needed.

The Poincaré Seminar is held twice a year at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris. This volume contains the lectures of the 2002 seminars. The main topic of the first one was the vacuum energy, in particular the Casimir effect and the nature of the cosmological constant. The second one concentrated on renormalization, giving a comprehensive account of its mathematical structure and applications to high energy physics, statistical mechanics and classical mechanics.Students will find excellent introductions to the subjects with further lectures leading to the frontiers of experimental and theoretical research, scientists will profit from contributions by outstanding experts.