The Universe

1. The Counting of Radio Sources: A Personal Perspective

   • Jayant V. Narlikar

   Pages 213-226

2. A Variational Principle for Time of Arrival of Null Geodesics

   • Ezra T. Newman, Simonetta Frittelli

   Pages 227-237

3. Conceptual Issues in Combining General Relativity and Quantum Theory

   • T. Padmanabhan

   Pages 239-251

4. Open Inflation in Higher Derivative Theory

   • B. C. Paul, S. Mukherjee

   Pages 253-259

5. The Non-Homogeneous and Hierarchical Universe

   • Jean-Claude Pecker

   Pages 261-276

6. Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in General Spacetimes With Curvature and/or Torsion (U ₄)

   • A. R. Prasanna, S. Mohanty

   Pages 277-284

7. A Fresh Look at the Singularity Problem

   • A. K. Raychaudhuri

   Pages 285-288

8. Probing Beyond the Cosmic Horizon

   • Tarun Souradeep

   Pages 289-300

9. The Kerr-Nut Metric Revisited

   • P. C. Vaidya, L. K. Patel

   Pages 301-308

10. Black Holes in Cosmological Backgrounds

    • C. V. Vishveshwara

    Pages 309-318

11. Elementary Particle Interactions and Noncommutative Geometry

    • Kameshwar C. Wali

    Pages 319-325

12. From Interstellar Grains to Panspermia

    • N. C. Wickramasinghe

    Pages 327-343

13. Back Matter

    Pages 345-346

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It is with great joy that we present a collection of essays written in honour of Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, who completed 60 years of age on July 19, 1998, by his friends and colleagues, including several of his for­ mer students. Jayant has had a long research career in astrophysics and cosmology, which he began at Cambridge in 1960, as a student of Sir Fred Hoyle. He started his work with a big bang, expounding on the steady state theory of the Universe and creating a new theory of gravity inspired by Mach's principle. He also worked on action-at-a-distance electrodynamics, inspired by the explorations of Wheeler, Feynman and Hogarth in that direction. This body of work established Jayant's rep­ utation as a bold and imaginative physicist who was ever willing to take a fresh look at fundamental issues, undeterred by conventional wis­ dom. This trait, undoubtedly inherited from his teacher and mentor, has always remained with Jayant. It is now most evident in his untir­ ing efforts to understand anomalies in quasar astronomy, and to develop the quasi-steady state cosmology, along with a group of highly distin­ guished astronomers including Halton Arp, Geoffrey Burbidge and Fred Hoyle. In spite of all this iconoclastic activity, Jayant remains a part of the mainstream; he appreciates as well as encourages good work along conventional lines by his students and colleagues. This is clear from the range of essays included in this volume, and the variety and distribution of the essayists.

• Cosmology
• EFE
• Gravity
• Quantum mechanics
• Redshift
• Relativity
• SR
• Theoretical physics
• Topological defect
• Universe
• astrophysics
• electromagnetic wave
• general relativity

• Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophyics, Pune, India

  Naresh Dadhich, Ajit Kembhavi

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