{"id":729,"date":"2015-12-02T20:36:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T01:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/?p=729"},"modified":"2018-03-14T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T14:04:12","slug":"general-relativity-at-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/12\/02\/general-relativity-at-100\/","title":{"rendered":"General Relativity at 100"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1968\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1968\" class=\"wp-image-1968\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2018\/03\/Einstein_patentoffice.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait of Albert Einstein. 1904 or 1905\" width=\"500\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2018\/03\/Einstein_patentoffice.jpg 666w, https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2018\/03\/Einstein_patentoffice-230x300.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1968\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Einstein<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On November 25, 1915, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/62280\">Einstein<\/a>&#8216;s paper on general relativity,\u00a0Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation (The Field Equations of Gravity), was published in the <em>Sitzungsberichte der<\/em> <i>K\u00f6niglich Preussische Akademie der\u00a0Wissenschaften.<\/i> Several\u00a0scans of the original are\u00a0available online, with <a href=\"http:\/\/echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de\/ECHOdocuView?url=\/permanent\/echo\/einstein\/sitzungsberichte\/6E3MAXK4\/index.meta\">this<\/a> being a relatively clear and readable\u00a0scan. \u00a0Einstein&#8217;s equations definitely had major effects on physics, but they have also led to remarkable mathematics. \u00a0Despite rumors to the contrary, Einstein was rather good at mathematics. \u00a0Much of his work relies on mathematical derivations of physical results. \u00a0An accessible example is his derivation\u00a0of the equivalence of mass and energy, which is the content of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/journals\/bull\/1935-41-04\/S0002-9904-1935-06046-X\/S0002-9904-1935-06046-X.pdf\">his Gibbs Lecture<\/a>. \u00a0More challenging is his work on the existence of singularities in space-times that contain either mass or charge [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=6877\">first paper<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=7992\">second paper &#8211; with Pauli<\/a>]. \u00a0Note that the paper with Pauli was published in the <em>Annals of Mathematics<\/em>. \u00a0Indeed, a MathSciNet search turns up 13 papers by Einstein that were published in the\u00a0<em>Annals<\/em>. \u00a0Not bad for someone reputed to be &#8220;bad at math&#8221;. \u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The influence I would like to concentrate on here\u00a0is the concept of an <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Einstein_manifold\">Einstein manifold<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0The definition is quite simple, if you are already conversant in differential geometry: \u00a0a Riemannian (or pseudo-Riemannian) manifold is Einstein if the Ricci tensor is proportional to the metric tensor. \u00a0That is to say, the (Ricci) curvature is a scalar multiple of the metric. \u00a0An important special family of Einstein manifolds is formed by the K\u00e4hler-Einstein manifolds, which include the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Calabi%E2%80%93Yau_manifold\">Calabi-Yau manifolds<\/a>. \u00a0Wherever they occur, Einstein manifolds tend to have special properties. \u00a0When starting with a manifold without a metric, the goal is often to determine whether it supports an Einstein metric.<\/p>\n<p>There is a great introduction to the subject in the book\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=867684\">Einstein Manifolds<\/a><\/em>, by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/36030\">Arthur Besse<\/a>. \u00a0The review of the original edition of the\u00a0book is appended below. \u00a0The book emphasizes compact Einstein manifolds. \u00a0Examples of such are few and far between. \u00a0The author of the book used to have a standing offer of a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant for anyone who came up with a genuinely new example. \u00a0I don&#8217;t know the status of that offer today. \u00a0Also, I am not sure how you would collect on it, as Arthur Besse is a pseudonym.<\/p>\n<p>Calabi-Yau manifolds are complex manifolds that are Einstein manifolds, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/K%C3%A4hler_manifold\">K\u00e4hler manifolds<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ricci-flat_manifold\">Ricci flat<\/a>. \u00a0They can also be described as Ricci-flat K\u00e4hler manifolds whose first <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chern_class\">Chern class<\/a> vanishes. Calabi-Yau manifolds play important roles in mathematical physics, particularly in string theory and mirror symmetry. \u00a0A supersymmetric picture of the universe is ten dimensional, having the usual four dimensions of space-time, plus compact Calabi-Yau manifolds &#8220;attached&#8221; at each point. \u00a0(The ten-dimensional space is fibered by Calabi-Yau manifolds over the four-dimensional base space.) \u00a0The Calabi-Yau manifolds have three complex dimensions, which means six real dimensions. \u00a0In the late 1980s, physicists were trying to generate as many examples of compact Calabi-Yau manifolds as possible. \u00a0I was quite impressed to see that some people in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.maths.ox.ac.uk\/people\/philip.candelas\">Philip Candelas<\/a>&#8216;s group at the University of Texas had written computer programs to generate possible examples. \u00a0This was done without the aid of Maple, Mathematica, or any other computer algebra system. \u00a0They wrote code, which generated pages of output (on the old side-punched, 132-column\u00a0computer paper), with each line being a candidate. \u00a0 They then used methods of algebraic geometry and representation theory to determine if the candidates were valid examples.<\/p>\n<p>In algebraic geometry, Calabi-Yau manifolds can be viewed as higher-dimensional generalizations of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/K3_surface\">K3 surfaces<\/a>. \u00a0Their existence was conjectured by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/44285\">Eugenio Calabi<\/a>, first in his <a href=\"http:\/\/mathunion.org\/ICM\/ICM1954.2\/Main\/icm1954.2.0206.0207.ocr.pdf\">talk at the ICM in Amsterdam<\/a>, then in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=85583\">paper in a volume honoring\u00a0Lefschetz<\/a>. \u00a0Their existence was proved by S.-T. Yau in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=480350\">his famous paper<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/journaldoc.html?cn=Comm_Pure_Appl_Math\">CPAM<\/a>. \u00a0The MathSciNet review of the paper is appended below. \u00a0The result is essentially a statement in algebraic geometry, but the proof involves some very serious work on existence of solutions to PDEs, e.g., the\u00a0complex Monge-Amp\u00e8re equation. \u00a0Applications of geometric analysis to algebraic geometry in this vein continue. \u00a0A current example is the work of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/632654\">Xiuxiong Chen<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/59010\">Simon Donaldson<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/879901\">Song Sun<\/a> on K\u00e4hler-Einstein metrics on Fano manifolds: see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=3194014\">MR3194014<\/a>, with full details in the review of the three-part paper\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=3264768\">MR3264766, MR3264767,\u00a0MR3264768<\/a>. \u00a0Several talks at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/2015summerinstitute\/\">2015 Summer Institute in Algebraic Geometry<\/a> were on this work.<\/p>\n<p>Einstein&#8217;s influence in mathematics is truly remarkable. \u00a0Searching MathSciNet for items with &#8220;Einstein&#8221; in the title leads to over 8,000 matches. \u00a0Doing the search with &#8220;Einstein&#8221; anywhere leads to nearly 29,000 matches. \u00a0That is quite a legacy.<\/p>\n<p>Happy 100<sup>th<\/sup> birthday, General Relativity! \u00a0And thank you for all the great mathematics!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>MR0867684<\/strong> <strong>(88f:53087)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=36030\">Besse, Arthur L.<\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"title\">Einstein manifolds.<\/span><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/series.html?cn=Ergebnisse_der_Mathematik_und_ihrer_Grenzgebiete_3\">Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete (3) [Results in Mathematics and Related Areas (3)], 10.<\/a> <em>Springer-Verlag, Berlin,<\/em>1987. xii+510 pp. ISBN: 3-540-15279-2<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/mscdoc.html?code=53C25,(53-02,53C21,53C30,53C55,58D17,58E11)\">53C25 (53-02 53C21 53C30 53C55 58D17 58E11)<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"review\">A Riemannian metric on a smooth manifold <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> is defined by a positive definite symmetric bilinar form <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span> on each tangent space <span class=\"MathTeX\">$T_pM$<\/span>. Part of the curvature of\u00a0<span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span> is represented by another symmetric bilinear form on <span class=\"MathTeX\">$T_pM$<\/span>, namely the Ricci tensor <span class=\"MathTeX\">$r$<\/span>. The metric is Einstein when <span class=\"MathTeX\">$r$<\/span> is a constant multiple of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>; if the constant if zero, <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> is &#8220;Ricci-flat&#8221; and a positive definite analogue of a solution to Einstein&#8217;s vacuum field equations.<br \/>\nThis book is designed to be an exhaustive survey of results concerning Einstein metrics on compact manifolds of dimension at least four, and has its origins in a 1979 symposium held at Espalion in southern France. At that time the recent solution by S. T. Yau and T. Aubin of conjectures of E. Calabi had established the existence of large classes of K\u00e4hler-Einstein manifolds whose scalar curvature <span class=\"MathTeX\">$s=textrm{trace}_gr$<\/span> is nonpositive. A K\u00e4hler manifold is one with strongly compatible complex and Riemannian structures, and for example an algebraic hypersurface of degree <span class=\"MathTeX\">$m+1$<\/span> in the complex projective space\u00a0<span class=\"MathTeX\">$mathbf{C}textrm{P}^m$<\/span> was shown to admit a Ricci-flat K\u00e4hler metric.<br \/>\nComplementary and more explicit classes of Einstein metrics arise on homogeneous spaces <span class=\"MathTeX\">$G\/H$<\/span>. If <span class=\"MathTeX\">$G$<\/span> is a compact Lie group, any orbit of the adjoint representation admits a canonical K\u00e4hler-Einstein metric with <span class=\"MathTeX\">$s&gt;0$<\/span>. In another direction, if <span class=\"MathTeX\">$H$<\/span> has irreducible isotropy representation, an invariant Riemannian metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span> on <span class=\"MathTeX\">$G\/H$<\/span> is forced to be proportional to its Ricci tensor <span class=\"MathTeX\">$r$<\/span>. Further progress towards a classification of homogeneous Einstein manifolds has been made, particularly by M. Wang and W. Ziller . An early observation was that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$mathbf{C}textrm{P}^3$<\/span> has a nonstandard homogeneous Einstein metric, a fact that may be explained in terms of a Riemannian submersion <span class=\"MathTeX\">$picolonmathbf{C}textrm{P}^3to S^4$<\/span>. Such techniques were exploited by L. B\u00e9rard-Bergery to generalize an example due to D. Page of an Einstein metric on the connected sum <span class=\"MathTeX\">$mathbf{C}textrm{P}^2,#,overline{mathbf{C}textrm{P}^2}$<\/span>.<br \/>\nThe description of the above examples and methods forms the central part of the book (Chapters 7, 8, 9, 11 out of a total of 16). With the exception of a few difficult proofs, the exposition is self-contained, and contains a wealth of previously unpublished or inaccessible material. The remainder of the book is organized as follows.<br \/>\nA comprehensive exposition of &#8220;basic material&#8221; precedes a digression into Lorentzian geometry and relativity. Motivation from physics permeates into Chapter 4, which develops the fact that Einstein metrics are the solutions to the Euler-Lagrange equations for stationary points of the integral of the scalar curvature <span class=\"MathTeX\">$s$<\/span>. Some attractive analysis then follows from the question of which functions arise as scalar curvatures, and which symmetric bilinear tensors are Ricci tensors. Chapter 6 is an examination of topological consequences of the Einstein condition, the most successful being the inequality <span class=\"MathTeX\">$chi(M)geqfrac 32|tau(M)|$<\/span> relating the Euler characteristic and the signature of a compact oriented Einstein 4-manifold, and resulting from successive work of M. Berger, J. A. Thorpe, and N. J. Hitchin . Other techniques give conditions for the existence of Einstein metrics with <span class=\"MathTeX\">$s&gt;0$<\/span>, but it is still unknown whether there is a manifold of dimension five or more admitting no Einstein metric.<br \/>\nLater chapters cover relevant, but more specialised topics. A sequel to the variational approach is provided by a study of deformations of Einstein metrics, and work of N. Koiso on the moduli space problem. Three chapters which could be read consecutively deal respectively with holonomy groups, self-duality in four dimensions, and quaternionic manifolds. The last of these is followed by a rather brief report on important constructions in the noncompact case. Finally there is a discussion of generalizations of the Einstein condition; interesting though these are, the reader may be left in agreement with the author&#8217;s thesis that Einstein metrics are the nicest sort. The book includes an Appendix on Sobolev spaces and elliptic operators, and an Addendum of results on five topics, too recent to make it into the main text. The fact that four of these topics are related to K\u00e4hler-Einstein manifolds is indicative of the ever-developing links between complex and Riemannian geometry.<br \/>\nThe book under review serves several purposes. It is an efficient reference book for many fundamental techniques of Riemannian geometry. On the other hand, despite its length, the reader will have no difficulty in getting the feel of its contents and discovering excellent examples of the interaction of geometry with partial differential equations, topology, and Lie groups. Above all, the book provides a clear insight into the scope and diversity of problems posed by its title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"doc\"><span class=\"ReviewedBy\">Reviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/153295\">S. M. Salamon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"doc\"><strong>MR0480350<\/strong> <strong>(81d:53045)<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=185480\">Yau, Shing Tung<\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"title\">On the Ricci curvature of a compact K\u00e4hler manifold and the complex Monge-Amp\u00e8re equation. I.<\/span><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/journaldoc.html?cn=Comm_Pure_Appl_Math\"><em>Comm. Pure Appl. Math.<\/em><\/a> <strong>31 <\/strong>(1978), no. 3, 339\u2013411.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/mscdoc.html?code=53C55,(32C10,35J60)\">53C55 (32C10 35J60)<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"review\">This remarkable paper establishes several related results which are of fundamental importance in the study of complex manifolds. These results, the main points of which were conjectured more than twenty years ago by E. Calabi [Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians (Amsterdam, 1954), Vol. 2, pp. 206\u2013207, Noordhoff, Groningen, 1954], have to do with the existence of K\u00e4hler metrics with certain special properties on compact K\u00e4hler manifolds. The results are established by reducing them to questions in nonlinear partial differential equations of Monge-Amp\u00e8re type which are then treated by a continuity method involving difficult a priori estimates. The methods and results on partial differential equations have great interest in themselves in addition to their importance as the mechanism of establishing the Calabi conjectures and some similar but more general geometric results.<br \/>\nTo discuss the contents of the paper more specifically: Let <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> be a compact K\u00e4hler manifold with K\u00e4hler metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>. Then it is a well-known result of S. S. Chern that the Ricci form (= in local coordinate representation<br \/>\n<span class=\"MathTeX\">$$ (-surd(-1)\/(2pi))sum_{i,j}left(partial^2[logtext{}det(g_{soverline t})]\/partial z^ipartial z^{overline j}right)dz^iwedge doverline z^j=\\ (surd(-1)\/(2pi))sum_{i,j}R_{ioverline j}dz^iwedge doverline z^j, $$<\/span> where<span class=\"MathTeX\">$sum_{i,j}R^{ioverline j}dz^iotimes doverline z^j$<\/span> is the Ricci tensor) is a closed real <span class=\"MathTeX\">$(1,1)$<\/span> form whose cohomology class is the first Chern class of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span>. In particular, this cohomology class depends only on the complex structure of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> and not on the choice of K\u00e4hler metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>. The conjecture [Calabi, op. cit.], which is proved in the paper under review, was that the converse held: Every closed real <span class=\"MathTeX\">$(1,1)$<\/span> form whose cohomology class is the first Chern class of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> is the Ricci form of some K\u00e4hler metric on <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span>. More precisely, Calabi conjectured that there is a <span class=\"MathTeX\">$C^infty$<\/span> function <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphicolon Mrightarrow{bf R}$<\/span> such that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g={}_{text{df}}sum_{i,j}(g_{ioverline j}+partial^2varphi\/partial z^ipartialoverline z^j)dz_iotimes doverline z_j$<\/span> is a positive definite K\u00e4hler metric the Ricci form of which is the given form; he proved that at most one metric of this form with given Ricci form exists, and that in fact <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphi$<\/span> is uniquely determined up to an additive constant by the Ricci form of the metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g$<\/span> [Calabi, <span class=\"it\">Algebraic geometry and topology<\/span>, pp. 78\u201389, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J., 1957;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/publdoc.html?r=1&amp;pg1=CNO&amp;s1=85583&amp;loc=fromrevtext\">MR0085583 (19,62b)<\/a>]. A second conjecture of Calabi [op. cit., 1954] concerned the existence of Einstein-K\u00e4hler metrics. A K\u00e4hler metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span> is by definition an Einstein-K\u00e4hler metric if its Ricci form is a multiple at each point of the K\u00e4hler form <span class=\"MathTeX\">$omega$<\/span> of the metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>. This condition is of course automatic by type considerations in complex dimension one. In complex dimension two or higher, it is a standard result that the multiple must be constant, so that by replacing <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span> by a positive constant multiple it is sufficient to consider the cases <span class=\"MathTeX\">$R=pmomega$<\/span> or <span class=\"MathTeX\">$Requiv 0$<\/span>. The case <span class=\"MathTeX\">$Requiv 0$<\/span> is a special case of the first conjecture: that there is a K\u00e4hler metric with Ricci form identically zero if (and only if) the first Chern class of the manifold is zero. If <span class=\"MathTeX\">$R$<\/span> is to be <span class=\"MathTeX\">$-omega$<\/span>, then the first Chern class of\u00a0<span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> must be negative or, equivalently, the canonical bundle of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> must be ample. The present paper establishes the existence of an Einstein-K\u00e4hler metric with\u00a0<span class=\"MathTeX\">$R=-omega$<\/span> on any compact complex manifold with ample canonical bundle. (A theorem of Nakano that negativity of the first Chern class implies nonexistence of nontrivial holomorphic vector fields relates this result to the original form of Calabi&#8217;s conjecture for this case.) This metric is canonical in the sense that it is uniquely determined by the complex structure of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span>. (Some results which are related to the Calabi conjectures and to which reference is made in the present article are given in the works of T. Aubin; these and their relationship to the present paper are discussed in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=494932\">review<\/a> of Aubin&#8217;s paper [53047 below].)<br \/>\nThe proofs of these results are far too lengthy and intricate to treat in any detail in a review. But it is possible to indicate how the questions are transformed to nonlinear partial differential equations problems: As before, let <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> be a compact K\u00e4hler manifold with K\u00e4hler metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span> and let<span class=\"MathTeX\">$(surd(-1)\/(2pi))sum_{i,j}R_{ioverline j}dz_iwedge doverline z_j$<\/span> be the Ricci form of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>. Suppose that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$(surd(-1)\/(2pi))sum_{i,j}tilde R_{ioverline j}dz_iwedge doverline z_j$<\/span> is a closed <span class=\"MathTeX\">$(1,1)$<\/span> form which also represents the first Chern class of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span>. By standard results, there is then a (smooth) function <span class=\"MathTeX\">$F$<\/span> on<span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> such that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde R_{ioverline j}-R_{ioverline j}=-partial^2F\/partial z^idoverline z^j$<\/span>. If <span class=\"MathTeX\">$sumtilde R_{ioverline j}dz_iotimes doverline z_j$<\/span> is in fact the Ricci tensor of a K\u00e4hler metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g$<\/span> then <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde R_{ioverline j}=-(partial^2\/partial z^ipartialoverline z^j)log(dettilde g_{soverline t})$<\/span>. From the maximum principle one sees that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$det(tilde g_{soverline t})=C(exp F)det(g_{soverline t})$<\/span>, where <span class=\"MathTeX\">$C$<\/span> is a constant. To make a unique choice of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g$<\/span>, one seeks <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g$<\/span> in the form <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g_{ioverline j}=g_{ioverline j}+(partial^2varphi\/partial z^ipartialoverline z^j)$<\/span>. Then the problem is reduced to solving the equation for <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphicolondet(g_{ioverline j}+partial^2varphi\/partial z^ipartialoverline z^j)=C(exp F)det(g_{st})$<\/span>, where the constant <span class=\"MathTeX\">$C=text{Vol}(M)\/int_Mexp F$<\/span>. The solution of this is unique [Calabi, op. cit., 1957]. It is natural in this situation to attempt the solution of the equation by the continuity method, where the family of equations to which the method is to be applied is obtained by varying <span class=\"MathTeX\">$F$<\/span>. Specifically, fix <span class=\"MathTeX\">$kgeq 3$<\/span> and <span class=\"MathTeX\">$alphain(0,1]$<\/span>. Let <span class=\"MathTeX\">$S=$<\/span> {<span class=\"MathTeX\">$tin[0,1]$<\/span>: the equation <span class=\"MathTeX\">$det(g_{ioverline j}+(partial^2varphi)\/(partial z^ipartialoverline z^j))det(g_{ioverline j})^{-1}=text{Vol}(M)[intexp{tF}]^{-1}exp{tF}$<\/span> has a solution in <span class=\"MathTeX\">$C^{k+1,alpha}(M)$<\/span>}. Then clearly <span class=\"MathTeX\">$0in S$<\/span> and if <span class=\"MathTeX\">$1in S$<\/span> then one has solved the equation originally considered. So now it suffices to show that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$S$\u00a0<\/span>is open and closed in <span class=\"MathTeX\">$[0,1]$<\/span>. That <span class=\"MathTeX\">$S$<\/span> is open can be established by applying the Banach space version of the implicit function theorem (because of ellipticity, there are no technical difficulties involving derivative loss). This step was carried out by Calabi. To see that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$S$<\/span> is closed, one tries to find a solution for the value\u00a0<span class=\"MathTeX\">$t_0inoverline S$<\/span> by taking the limit of a (sub)sequence of the solutions <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphi_{t_i}$<\/span> of the equations for <span class=\"MathTeX\">$t_iin S$<\/span> with <span class=\"MathTeX\">$t_irightarrow t_0$<\/span>, where for normalization one assumes <span class=\"MathTeX\">$int_Mvarphi_{t_i}=0$<\/span>. (This normalization actually makes each <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphi_{t_i}$<\/span> uniquely determined.) To be sure that such a limit exists, one must obtain a priori estimates on the <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphi_{t_i}$<\/span> and their derivatives. To obtain estimates that are sufficient to allow the Schauder theory to apply (i.e. estimates up to third order derivatives) is difficult. The third derivative estimates can be obtained (in the presence of the lower order estimates) by a process similar to that used by Calabi in a slightly different context (the real Monge-Amp\u00e8re equation: [Calabi, Michigan Math. J. <span class=\"bf\">5<\/span> (1958), 105\u2013126; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/publdoc.html?r=1&amp;pg1=CNO&amp;s1=106487&amp;loc=fromrevtext\">MR0106487 (21 #5219)<\/a>]). But the obtaining of the estimates up to second order involves an intricate, new procedure. Once these estimates are obtained, the Schauder theory allows the proof to be completed by the continuity method.<br \/>\nSimilar considerations imply the existence of Einstein-K\u00e4hler metrics on any compact complex manifold <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> with ample canonical bundle (such a manifold is automatically projective algebraic and hence a K\u00e4hler manifold). Indeed by hypothesis there is a closed positive <span class=\"MathTeX\">$(1,1)$<\/span> form <span class=\"MathTeX\">$surd(-1)sum_{i,j}g_{ioverline j}dz^iwedge doverline z^j$<\/span>, which represents the negative of the first Chern class of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span>. This form is the K\u00e4hler form of a K\u00e4hler metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>. By a theorem of Chern as before, the first Chern class of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span> is also represented by <span class=\"MathTeX\">$-partialoverlinepartiallogtext{}det(g_{ioverline j})$<\/span> (= the Ricci form of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$g$<\/span>). So there is a smooth function <span class=\"MathTeX\">$f$<\/span> with <span class=\"MathTeX\">$partialoverlinepartiallogtext{}det(g_{ioverline j})=surd(-1)sum g_{ioverline j}dz^iwedge doverline z^j+partialoverlinepartial f$<\/span>. One seeks a function <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphi$<\/span> such that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g=sum(g_{ioverline j}+(partial^2varphi\/partial z^ipartialoverline z^j))dz_iotimes dz_j$<\/span> is a K\u00e4hler metric and such that <span class=\"MathTeX\">$det(g_{ioverline j}+partial^2varphi\/partial z^ipartialoverline z^j)=exp(varphi-f)det(g_{ioverline j})$<\/span>. A brief calculation then shows that the Ricci tensor of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g$<\/span> is <span class=\"MathTeX\">$-tilde g$<\/span>. To find <span class=\"MathTeX\">$varphi$<\/span>, one again uses the continuity method to solve the partial differential equation given. (Actually, a somewhat more general equation is solved.) The metric <span class=\"MathTeX\">$tilde g$<\/span> is shown to be uniquely determined; i.e., it depends only on the complex structure of <span class=\"MathTeX\">$M$<\/span>.<br \/>\nNumerous technical refinements of the results stated, some of them of immediate importance in applications to geometry, are given. Detailed discussion of these refinements must be omitted here. Although the author does not discuss applications in this paper, it would be inappropriate to conclude this review without noting that not only are the results given in this article of great interest in themselves but also they have numerous important applications in geometry. These are discussed in part in a previous article of the author [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. <span class=\"bf\">74<\/span> (1977), no. 5, 1798\u20131799; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/publdoc.html?r=1&amp;pg1=CNO&amp;s1=451180&amp;loc=fromrevtext\">MR0451180 (56 #9467)<\/a>]. They include: the existence of Ricci flat but nonflat compact manifolds, the uniqueness of complex structure on complex projective 2-space, and the proof that any complex surface that is oriented homotopic to a surface covered by the ball is biholomorphic to the latter surface. The results of the presently reviewed article represent a major advance in differential and transcendental algebraic geometry. These results and the methods by which they are obtained will no doubt become a permanent part of the investigative techniques of these areas.<br \/>\n{This review was received in April 1979.}<\/p>\n<p class=\"doc\"><span class=\"ReviewedBy\">Reviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/MRAuthorID\/76630\">Robert E. Greene<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On November 25, 1915, Einstein&#8216;s paper on general relativity,\u00a0Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation (The Field Equations of Gravity), was published in the Sitzungsberichte der K\u00f6niglich Preussische Akademie der\u00a0Wissenschaften. Several\u00a0scans of the original are\u00a0available online, with this being a relatively clear and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/12\/02\/general-relativity-at-100\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" data-url=https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/12\/02\/general-relativity-at-100\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":1968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anniversaries"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2018\/03\/Einstein_patentoffice.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6C2KK-bL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2030,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/2030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}