Publisher's Synopsis
Quantum field theory over a fixed geometry provides, at present, the most fundamental description of physical phenomena except for gravitation, which requires a fluctuating (pseudo-)Riemannian structure. The aim of this book is to combine the work of the two communities of field theorists and general relativists, so fostering cooperation and progress. Traditional domains of interaction have been perturbation theory, special solutions, black hole evaporation and more recently, cosmology. Future avenues which are becoming discernible are: measurement theory and the analysis of the frontier between the classical domains and quantum situations; classical spacetime as a derived concept (twister programme, string theory, Ashtekar variables ...), string field theory and hidden symmetries for extended objects; and algebraic field theory and non-commutative geometry.
