Mathematics

of the Heavens
Robert Osserman

Sponsored each April by the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics, Mathematics Awareness Month provides an opportunity
to celebrate mathematics and its uses. The theme for Mathematics Awareness Month 2005 is Mathematics and the
Cosmos. In this article, the Notices reproduces three Mathematics Awareness Month theme
essays written by Robert Osserman. Two other theme essays, plus a variety of resources including a Mathematics
Awareness Month poster, are available on the website http://www.mathaware.org.

Mathematics by the publication of Laplaces Mchanique Cleste in five volumes

from 1799 to 1825 and Poincars Les Mthodes Nouvelles de la
and the Cosmos Mchanique Cleste in three volumes from 1892 to 1899. The
mid-nineteenth century produced further important contribu-
Introduction and Brief History tions from Jacobi and Liouville, among others, as well as two
The mathematical study of the cosmos has its roots groundbreaking new directions that were to provide the basic tools
in antiquity with early attempts to describe the leading to the two revolutionary breakthroughs of twentieth-cen-
motions of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets in pre- tury physics; Hamiltons original approach to dynamics became
cise mathematical terms, allowing predictions of the springboard for quantum mechanics and the general subject
future positions. In modern times many of the of dynamical systems, while Riemanns 1854 Habili-
greatest mathematical scientists turned their at- tationsschrift introduced curved spaces of three and more di-
tention to the subject. Building on Keplers dis- mensions as well as the general notion of an n-dimensional man-
covery of the three basic laws of planetary motion, ifold, thus ushering in the modern subject of cosmology leading
Newton invented the subjects of celestial me- to Einstein and beyond.
chanics and dynamics. He studied the n-body The twentieth century saw a true flowering of the subject, as
problem of describing the motion of a number of new mathematical methods combined with new physics and
masses, such as the Sun and the planets and their rapidly advancing technology. One might single out three main
moons, under the force of mutual gravitational at- areas, with many overlaps and tendrils reaching out in multiple
traction. He was able to derive improved versions directions.
of Keplers laws, one of whose consequences yielded First, cosmology became ever more intertwined with astro-
dramatic results just in the past decade when it was physics, as discoveries were made about the varieties of stars and
used to detect the existence of planets circling their life histories, as well as supernovae and an assortment of
other stars. previously unknown celestial objects, such as pulsars, quasars,
The two leading mathematicians of the eigh- dark matter, black holes, and even galaxies themselves, whose ex-
teenth century, Euler and Lagrange, both made istence had been suspected but not confirmed until the twenti-
fundamental contributions to the subject, as did eth century. Most critical was the discovery at the beginning of
Gauss at the turn of the century, spurred by the dis- the century of the expansion of the universe, with its concomi-
covery of the first of the asteroids, Ceres, on Jan- tant phenomenon of the Big Bang, and then at the end, the recent
uary 1, 1801. The nineteenth century was framed discovery of the accelerating universe, with its associated con-
jectural dark energy.
Robert Osserman is the special projects director of the
Second, the subject of celestial mechanics evolved into that of
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. He
also serves as chair of the Mathematics and the Cosmos
dynamical systems, with major advances by mathematicians
Advisory Committee for Mathematics Awareness Month G. D. Birkhoff, Kolmogorov, Arnold, and Moser. Many new dis-
2005. His email address is [email protected]. coveries were made about the n-body problem, both general ones,
The author gratefully acknowledges the input of Myles such as theorems on stability and instability, and specific ones, such
Standish, Martin Lo, Fabrizio Polara, Susan Lavoie, and as new concrete solutions for small values of n. Methods of chaos
Charles Avis of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Jerry theory began to play a role, and the theoretical studies were both
Marsden of Caltech. informed by and applied to the profusion of new discoveries of

APRIL 2005 NOTICES OF THE AMS 417

 planets, their moons, asteroids, comets, and other rockets, artificial satellites, and space probes. On
objects composing the increasingly complex struc- the other hand, almost all of those space vehicles
ture of the solar system. were equipped with scientific instruments for gath-
Third, the advent of actual space exploration, ering data about the Earth and other objects in our
sending artificial satellites and space probes to solar system, as well as distant stars and galaxies
the furthest reaches of the solar system, as well as going back to the cosmic microwave background
the astronaut and cosmonaut programs for nearby radiation. Furthermore, the deviations in the paths
study, transformed our understanding of the ob- of satellites and probes provide direct feedback on
jects in our solar system and of cosmology as a the gravitational field around the Earth and
whole. The Hubble space telescope was just one of throughout the solar system.
many viewing devices, operating at all wave lengths, Beyond these direct effects, there are many other
that provided stunning images of celestial objects, areas of interaction between the space program and
near and far. The 250-year-old theoretical discov- mathematics. We list just a few:
eries by Euler and Lagrange of critical points known GPS: the global positioning system,
as Lagrange points saw their practical application data compression techniques for transmitting
in the stationing of satellites. The 100-year-old messages,
introduction by Poincar of stable and unstable digitizing and coding of images,
manifolds formed the basis of the rescue of error-correcting codes for accurate transmis-
otherwise abandoned satellites, as well as the plan- sions,
ning of remarkably fuel-efficient trajectories. slingshot or gravitational boosting for
Finally, the biggest twentieth-century innova- optimal trajectories,
tion of all, the modern computer, played an ever- exploitation of Lagrange points for strategic
increasing and more critical role in all of these ad- placement of satellites,
vances. Numerical methods were applied to all dynamical systems methods for energy-
three of the above areas, while simulations and com- efficient orbit placing,
puter graphics grew into a major tool in deepen- finite element modeling for structures such as
ing our understanding. The ever-increasing speed spacecraft and antennas.
and power of computers went hand-in-hand with Some of the satellites and space probes that
the increasingly sophisticated mathematical meth- have contributed to cosmology and astrophysics are
ods used to code, compress, and transmit messages the Hubble space telescope,
and images from satellites and space probes span- the Hipparcos mission to catalog the posi-
ning the entire breadth of our solar system. tions of a million stars to new levels of accuracy,
the COBE and WMAP satellites for studying the
General References
cosmic microwave background radiation,
[1] DENNIS RICHARD DANIELSON, The Book of the Cosmos: the Genesis mission and SOHO satellite for
Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking,
studying the Sun and solar radiation,
Perseus, Cambridge, 2000.
[2] BRIAN GREENE, The Fabric of the Cosmos. Space, Time,
the ISEE3/ICE space probe to study solar flares
and the Texture of Reality, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New and cosmic gamma rays before going on to visit the
York, 2004. MR2053394. Giacobini-Zimmer comet and Halleys comet,
[3] THOMAS S. KUHN, The Copernican Revolution: Planetary the LAGEOS satellites to test Einsteins pre-
Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought, diction of frame dragging around a rotating body.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1957. Rather than trying to cover all or even most of
[4] ROBERT OSSERMAN, Poetry of the Universe: A Mathemat- the mathematical links, we focus on two that
ical Exploration of the Cosmos, Anchor/Doubleday, are absolutely essential and central to the whole
New York, 1995.
endeavor: first, navigation and the planning of
[5] GEORGE PLYA, Mathematical Methods in Science, rev. ed.
(Leon Bowden, ed.), New Mathematical Library, Vol. 26.
trajectories; and second, communication and the
Mathematical Association of America, Washington, transmission of images.
DC, 1977. MR0439511 (55:12401)
[6] STEVEN WEINBERG, The First Three Minutes, A Modern View Navigation, Trajectories, and Orbits
of the Origin of the Universe, 2nd ed., Basic Books, 1993. When the U.S. space program was set up in
earnesta process described in detail in the recent
History Channel documentary Race to the Moon
Space Exploration a notable feature was the introduction of the
Starting in the twentieth century, the mathemati- Mission Control Center. The first row of seats in
cal exploration of the cosmos became inextricably mission control was known as the trench, and it
entwined with the physical exploration of space. On is from there that the mathematicians whose spe-
one hand, virtually all the methods of celestial me- cialty is orbital mechanics kept track of trajecto-
chanics that had been developed over the centuries ries and fed in the information needed for
were transformed into tools for the navigation of navigation. Their role is particularly important for

418 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 52, NUMBER 4

operations involving rendezvous between two
vehicles, in delicate operations such as landings on
the Moon and in emergencies that call on all their
skills, the most notable of which was bringing back
alive the crew of Apollo 13 after they had to aban-
don the command module and were forced to use
the lunar landing modulenever designed for that
purposeto navigate back to Earth.
The first thing that an astronaut or former
astronaut will tell you about navigating in a space-
ship is that no amount of experience piloting a
plane will be of any help. On the contrary, previ-

Image by NASA/WMAP Science Team.

ous experience may be a hindrance, since it
reinforces ones natural intuition that if you want
to catch up with an object ahead, you go faster, and
conversely. But if you are orbiting at a certain speed
and have to rendezvous with something ahead,
then stepping on the accelerator (translate as
applying a forward thrust) will lift you into a
higher orbit where first of all, the vertical distance
between you and the object orbiting ahead will
increase, and second, your average angular veloc-
ity will decrease, by Kepler's third law, and you will
An all-sky image of the infant universe, 380,000 years
find yourself getting further and further behind.
after the Big Bang. In 1992, NASAs COBE mission first
In fact, the only way in practice to effect a ren-
detected tiny temperature fluctuations (shown as color
dezvous and docking maneuver is to feed the data
variations) in the infant universe, a landmark discovery.
on both vehicles into a computer and apply the The WMAP image brings the COBE picture into sharp
methods of orbital mechanics to plan a trajectory focus. The new, detailed image provides firm answers
that brings both vehicles to the same place at the to age-old questions.
same time at essentially the same velocities. Math-
ematically, such maneuvers are best described by
working in phase space, where each point has six gradual reduction of weight as fuel is used up, or
coordinates: three describing its position and three in cases of relativistic speeds, the force is given by
describing components of its velocity vector. One the first derivative of momentum, but the princi-
must find paths for the two vehicles that come ple is the same.
together in phase space. In the case of the 2-body problem, where the only
The ability to navigate started with Isaac New- force involved is the gravitational attraction be-
ton. Not only did he formulate his laws of motion tween the two bodies, it is frequently said that
and of gravity, but he also developed the calculus Newton was able to give a complete solution. That
which allowed him to put those laws into the is not, strictly speaking, the case, if one means by
language of mathematical equations. Today, our a solution of a differential equation, an expres-
knowledge of the physics involved has been sion for the unknown function whose derivatives
improved with the addition of relativity and other appear in the equation. In this case, it would mean
factors that may play a role, and calculus has been finding an expression for the position as a func-
further developed into many different branches of tion of time. However, what Newton showed was
mathematics. that the orbit of each of the bodies lies on a conic
What kind of mathematics? Newtons equations section (in a fixed inertial frame of reference), and
involve the gravitational forces acting upon one of in the case considered by Kepler, where the orbit
the participating bodies, arising from all of the is an ellipse, there is an explicit expression for
other bodies. Since force is mass times acceleration the time as a function of the position. Commonly
and since acceleration is simply the second deriv- known as Keplers equation, it is of the form
ative of position with respect to time, it is the t = x e sin x , in suitable units of time t , where x
differential calculus that describes the accelera- is the polar angle from the center of the ellipse and
tions. Then, once the accelerations are given, it is e is the eccentricity. What one wants, of course, is
necessary to use integral calculus in order to get x as a function of t , and much effort and ingenu-
from the second derivatives to the positions. ity have gone into finding effective means of solv-
In a more general context, where the mass may ing Keplers equation for x in terms of t . Lagrange
be changing with time, such as happens with an did extensive work on the problem, in the course
extended application of thrust to a vehicle, with the of which he developed both Fourier series and

APRIL 2005 NOTICES OF THE AMS 419

 Bessel functions, named after later mathemati- will require more fuel to correct the trajectory once
cians who investigated these concepts in greater the spacecraft starts approaching its final target.
detail. Both Laplace and Gauss made major con- One of the mathematical tools used to optimize
tributions, and succeeding generations continued some feature of a flight trajectory, such as fuel con-
to work on the subject. sumption or flight time, is a maximum principle
When there are more than two bodies involved, introduced by Pontryagin in 1962. Pontryagins
the problem cannot be solved analytically; instead, theorem characterizes the optimum values of
the integration (positions from accelerations) must certain parameters, called the controllers, that
be done numerically: now, with high-speed com- determine a trajectory.
puters. So, numerical integral calculus is a major In recent decades, ingenious new methods have
factor of spacecraft navigation. been developed to extract the maximum effect
One may picture navigation as being the mod- from the least amount of fuel. One such method
eling of mother nature on a computer. At some is known as the slingshot or gravity-assisted
time, with the planets in their orbits, a spacecraft trajectory. By aiming a space vehicle in a way that
is given a push outward into the solar system. Its crosses the orbit of another planet or moon just
subsequent orbit is then determined by the gravi- behind that body, the path of the vehicle will be
tational forces upon it due to the Sun and planets. deflected, sending it on its way to the next target
We compute these, step-by-step in time, seeing with minimum expenditure of fuel. A number of
how the (changing) forces determine the motion of space probes, such as Cassini-Huygens, have ben-
the spacecraft. This is very similar to what one efited from carefully calculated trajectories that
may picture being done in nature. make multiple use of the slingshot effect. Gravity-
How does one get an accurate orbit in the com- assist methods are equally important for sending
puter? The spacecrafts orbit is measured as it pro- a probe toward the inner planets: Venus and Mer-
gresses on its journey, and the computer model is cury. In that case, one sends the probe to a point
adjusted in order to best fit the actual measure-
on the orbit just in advance of the body it is pass-
ments. Here one uses another type of calculus:
ing. In both cases, the effect of the fly-by is to alter
estimation theory. It involves changing the initial
the velocity, changing the direction of flight and
input parameters (starting positions and veloci-
leaving the end speed relative to the body it is pass-
ties) in the computer in order to make the output
ing unchanged. However, that body will be moving
parameters (positions and velocities at subse-
with considerable momentum relative to the Sun,
quent times) match what is being measured:
and there will be an exchange of momentum in
adjusting the computer model to better fit reality.
which the body will be slowed down or speeded up
Also in navigation, one must reduce the
by an infinitesimal amount, while the probe will be
measurements. Usually, the measurements do
speeded up or slowed down by a considerable
not correspond exactly with the positions in the
computer; one must apply a few formulae before amount relative to the Sun.
a comparison can be made. For instance, the More modern, twentieth-century mathematical
positions in the computer represent the centers of methods of dynamical systems have proved
mass of the different planets; a radar echo, invaluable in designing complicated fuel-efficient
however, measures the path from the radio an- orbits. These methods include the theory of stable
tenna to the spot on a planets surfaces from which and unstable manifolds, pioneered by Poincar,
the signal bounces back to Earth. This processing leading to the subject now known as chaotic
involves the use of trigonometry, geometry, and dynamics, and the KAM theory, due to Kolmogorov,
physics. Arnold, and Moser, of invariant tori and stability.
Finally, there is error analysis, or covariance One of the first achievements of the new methods
calculus. In the initial planning stages of a mission, was the 1991 rescue of a Japanese spacecraft Hiten
one is more interested in how accurately we will that was stranded without enough fuel to com-
know the positions of the spacecraft and its tar- plete a planned mission when a second satellite,
get, not in the exact positions themselves. With low intended to work in tandem with the first, failed
accuracy, greater amounts of fuel are required, to operate. The mathematician Edward Belbruno
and it could be that some precise navigation would had designed highly fuel-efficient orbits using
not even be possible. Covariance analysis takes methods derived from chaos theory, and that
into account (1) what measurements we will have turned out to be just what was needed for this
of the spacecraft: how many and how good, (2) rescue operation. Belbrunos methods were incor-
how accurately we will be able to compute the porated into the design used by Giuseppe Racca and
forces, and (3) how accurately we will know the the European Space Agency in sending SMART-1,
position of the target. These criteria are then used their first satellite to the Moon, in 2004. Newspa-
in order to determine how closely we can deliver per headlines trumpeted spacecraft reaches moon
the spacecraft to the target. Again, poor accuracy on 5 million miles a gallon as a dramatic way of

420 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 52, NUMBER 4

underlining the astonishing fuel efficiency of the be added to all the others to restore the original
method. content. For a large data stream, techniques such
In the past few years, other applications of the as this can save hours of transmission time and
theory of stable and unstable manifolds have been much storage capacity.
invoked in trajectory planning. Martin Lo and his Entropy coding is a technique that takes into
colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory devel- account the probability distribution of different sets
oped ways to apply the theory in order to place satel- of data in order to encode more probable data with
lites such as Genesis in an orbit around the Lagrange shorter sequences, just as in Morse code where
point between Earth and the Sun and then return the letter E is represented by a single dot. Image
it to Earth. More recently, the same group, together data compression techniques rely on mathemati-
with Jerry Marsden at Caltech, have expanded the cal image probability models that exploit the
method for use in interplanetary travel, along what similarities between neighboring small picture
they call the interplanetary superhighway, a route elements to minimize the number of bytes needed
derived from the ever-changing configurations of to describe the image.
stable and unstable manifolds in the phase space The possibility of detecting and even correcting
of our solar system or selected parts of it. A beau- errors in transmission was first pointed out in a
tifully illustrated article by Douglas Smith de- groundbreaking paper of Richard Hamming in
scribing this work can be found in the journal 1950. Since then, an entire field has grown up in
Engineering and Science. which, on one hand, ever more refined methods
Communication and Image Transmission have been devised for practical applications, and
on the other hand, the theory of error-correcting
For space exploration and interplanetary probes,
codes has turned out to have fascinating links with
navigational techniques and orbital mechanics may
sphere packing and simple groups, beautifully
get you where you want to go, but it is not worth
described in the book of Thomas Thompson.
much if the data collected cannot be successfully
More recent mathematical innovations that have
transmitted back to Earth. In the case of the Cassini
proved to be of both theoretical interest and great
spacecraft at Saturn, signals have to travel dis-
practical use in this connection are the subjects
tances on the order of a billion miles or more. Data
transmitted from across the planetary system with of fractals and wavelets. An excellent survey of all
very limited power are received on Earth as a very aspects of image analysis, transmission, and
faint signal (as low as a billionth of a billionth of reconstruction is the theme essay on Mathematics
a watt) embedded in noise. Only through miracles and Imaging on the 1998 Mathematics Awareness
of modern technology operating in tandem with Week website.
ever-improving mathematical methods is one able
References
to receive the striking and detailed images that
are now on display. Trajectories, Orbits, and Space Navigation
Two critical processes come into play for trans- [1] RICHARD A. BATTIN, An Introduction to the Mathematics
and Methods of Astrodynamics, American Institute of
mitting messages of all sorts. The first is com-
Aeronautics and Astronautics, New York, 1987.
pression, to be able to transmit the maximum
[2] V. A. BRUMBERG, Essential Relativistic Celestial Mechan-
amount of information with the least number of ics, Section 5.1: Equations of motion of Earths artifi-
bits, and the second is the use of error-correcting cial satellites, Adam Hilger, Bristol, 1991.
codes, to overcome problems of noise and distor- [3] PETER COLWELL, Solving Keplers Equation over Three
tion. Basically, one wants to eliminate redundancy Centuries, Whitman-Bell, Richmond, VA, 1993.
to obtain compression of the data, and then one [4] JAMES CASE, Celestial mechanics theory meets the
has to introduce redundancy in order to catch and nitty-gritty of trajectory design, SIAM News 37 (2004),
correct errors of transmission. The two operations 13 (book review).
may at first seem to cancel each other out, but in [5] E DWARD B ELBRUNO , Capture Dynamics and Chaotic
fact the types of redundancies involved in the two Motion in Celestial Mechanics: With Applications to
cases are quite different. the Construction of Low Energy Transfers, Princeton
A variety of mathematical techniques are used University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2004.
[6] GIUSEPPE D. RACCA, New challenges to trajectory design
to compress the spacecraft data into fewer bits prior
by the use of electric propulsion and other new means
to transmission to the ground. A simple one avoids
of wandering in the solar system, Celestial Mech.
transmitting all sixteen bits of every data element
Dynam. Astron. 85 (2003), 124.
of a data stream. The value of the first data element [7] V. SZEBEHELY, Theory of Orbits, Academic Press, New
is sent, but for the rest of the elements, only the York, 1967.
difference from the first is sent. The value of the [8] DOUGLAS L. SMITH, Next exit 0.5 million kilometers,
first element might require sixteen bits, but the dif- Engr. and Sci., No. 4 (2002), 614. http://
ferences are so small they might only need two or pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/
three bits. Once on the ground the first value can articles/LXV4/LoMarsden%20Feature.pdf.

APRIL 2005 NOTICES OF THE AMS 421

 This sequence of images shows one of the first 3D simulations, carried out by members of the
European Union Training Network Sources of Gravitational Waves. The sequence shows two spinning
black holes merging in the final stages of a rapidly decaying orbit. The leftmost image shows the two
individual black holes about to merge. The individual horizons are shown in the center of the image
(the larger black hole is just above a smaller one). The developing burst of radiation is shown shooting
out towards the upper left direction and to the lower right. The final image on the right shows the final
black hole, with the two original black hole horizon surfaces still seen inside, and it also shows the
developing and intensifying burst of gravitational waves. Images by Ed Seidel and Werner Benger of
the Albert-Einstein-Institut, the Zuse-Institut-Berlin, and the Center for Computation & Technology at
Louisiana State University. Reproduced with permission of the European Union Training Network
Sources of Gravitational Waves.

Websites the universe was demonstrated to the satisfaction

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://www.nasa.gov/ of nearly all. Einstein was able to use general rela-
centers/jpl/home/index.html. tivity on the one hand to explain earlier observa-
Martin Lo main page: http://www.gg.caltech.edu/ tions, such as the amount of precession of the
~mwl/. planet Mercury, and on the other hand to make new
Gravity-assisted trajectories: http://saturn.jpl.nasa. predictions for the observers to confirm or refute.
gov/mission/gravity-assist-primer2.cfm.
The first and most widely heralded of those was
DVDs and Videos the prediction of the bending of light as it passed
The Race to the Moon, The History Channel, 2004. close to a large mass such as the Sun. Others, such
Ring World: Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Its as gravitational red-shift, gravitational lensing, and
Moons, NASA, JPL 400-1114, 11/03. frame-dragging around a rotating body, were
Mathematics of Space-rendezvous, NASA, JSC 1801. confirmed one by one over the course of the cen-
Space Flight: Application of Orbital Mechanics, NASA, tury. Still others, like the existence of gravity waves,
CMP 277. remain a high priority for twenty-first-century
Communication and Image Transmission experimentalists.
THOMAS M. THOMPSON, From error-correcting codes through The Nobel Prize-winning work of Russell Hulse
sphere packings to simple groups, Mathematical Associ- and Joseph Taylor stemmed from their discovery
ation of America, Washington, DC, 1983. in 1974 of a pulsar whose pulses varied in a
Mathematics Awareness 1998 Theme Essay, Mathematics regular fashion, leading them to conclude that it
and imaging: http://www.mathaware.org/mam/98/ had an invisible companion, the pair forming a
articles/theme.essay.html. familiar binary system each one circling the other
(or actually, their common center of gravity) in an
approximately elliptical orbit. In this case, the pair
From Black Holes to Dark consisted of two bodies each as massive as the Sun,
Energy: Cosmology in the but compressed into a tight ball whose diameter
was the size of a small town, and each completed
Twenty-first Century its orbit around the other in about eight hours.
Under such extreme conditions, the relativistic
Cosmology in the twentieth century was almost in effects would be considerable. One of those
its entirety the outgrowth of Einsteins founda- effects would be the production of gravity waves,
tional paper in 1915 on general relativity. Two and Einsteins equations predicted that those waves
years later he presented his first model of the would radiate energy in a way that causes the two
universe based on general relativity together with bodies to gradually get closer, which would in turn
Riemanns notion of the three-sphere. speed up the rate that they completed each orbit
Side-by-side with the theoretical advances, ob- by a very precise amount. After observing the
servational astronomy led to great leaps in astro- variations in the pulse rate over a period of four
physics, as the life cycles of stars were discovered years, Hulse and Taylor were able to show that
and elaborated, the existence of other galaxies out- the speed-up was indeed taking place at the rate
side our own was confirmed, and the expansion of predicted, to within less than 1 percent deviation.

422 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 52, NUMBER 4

That provided the first experimental evidence for launched in 1978, was an X-ray telescope that was
the existence of gravity waves. able to make X-ray images as sharp as an optical
That evidence, however, was indirect. In fact, the telescope. Gradually, the scientific community
strength of the predicted waves in the case of the became convinced that Cyg X-1 was indeed a real-
binary pulsars was far too weak for any hope of di- life black hole whose physical characteristics
rect detection on Earth. However, the same general corresponded closely to those predicted by the
principles would apply to a binary pair of black theory. Evidence has accumulated for other X-ray
holes, and there the calculations indicated that the sources arising from the vicinity of black holes, as
strength of the waves could be just within the lim- well as black holes in the center of quasars and
its of possible detectability with suitably crafted ap- large galaxies, such as our own.
paratus. Attempts at detection had already begun One tool that has become increasingly more im-
in the late 1950s with Joseph Weber. At that time, portant in the study of black holes as in the rest
not only was the reality of gravity waves in doubt, of astronomy and cosmology has been computer
but the existence of black holes was generally simulations. By 2001, such simulations were able
greeted with skepticism. to predict the nature of the gravitational waves
The idea of black holes (although not the name) that we might be able to detect from the collision
arose very soon after Einstein formulated general and merging of two black holes and to display the
relativity. Karl Schwarzschild, despite the fact that results in dramatic images. The reality of black
he was in the German army stationed in Russia holes and, in particular, their role in the produc-
and that it was in the midst of World War I, read tion of gravity waves are now widely enough
Einsteins paper and almost immediately was able accepted that large amounts of money are being
to solve Einsteins equations for the case of the invested in experimental devices, such as the LIGO
gravitational field surrounding a (nonrotating) project, to detect associated gravity waves.
spherically symmetric body. A few weeks later he Given the extent to which theoretical predic-
was able to solve the equations and describe the
tions about black holes appear to be confirmed by
space-time curvature in the interior of the body. One
observations, why the continued hesitancy about
of the consequences of the Schwarzschild solu-
their wholehearted acceptance? One answer is that
tion seemed to be that a sufficiently massive body
each of the predictions is based on certain simpli-
compressed within a sufficiently small radius
fying assumptions and continuing unknowns. For
(where sufficiently was made precise by the
example, the early models were for a spherically
Schwarzschild equations) would have the property
symmetric nonrotating body, whereas physical
that no radiation or matter could ever escape.
reality almost certainly corresponds to rotating
Oddly, a very similar conclusion was reached by
bodies with concomitant bulges at the equator.
purely Newtonian methods in 1783 by John Michell
But most importantly, what was missing in the
in England and became widely known through
Laplaces famous five-volume Le Systme du Monde. early studies and what is conspicuously absent in
In both cases, however, the question remained the above discussion is the central role of quantum
whether it was possible for a real-world physical effects. That, however, would lead us far afield
body to exist within those parameters. The first and can be found in many of the references given
theoretical evidence was adduced in a 1939 paper below. Instead, we indicate briefly two further sub-
by Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder, who jects of particular mathematical interest.
calculated the space-time geometry around an In 1953, a young differential geometer, Eugenio
imploding massive star, under certain simplifying Calabi, made a study of complex manifolds and was
assumptions, and concluded that the star would led to conjecture that under very general conditions
eventually become invisible. there should be a metric on each manifold of a par-
As for the reality of black holes, it was hard for ticularly symmetric nature. This Calabi conjecture
the experts, much less the general public, to decide was a subject of great interest and was finally
whether they represented science or science fiction. proved in 1977 by Shing-Tung Yau. Although of con-
Many leaders in the field, from Einstein to John siderable mathematical interest, the Calabi-Yau
Wheeler, had serious doubts. It was not until the manifolds, as they came to be known, had no ob-
advent of X-ray astronomy that the balance was vious connection to cosmology until the advent of
tilted in favor of science. Since X-rays from outer string theory introduced a whole new dimension
space do not penetrate our protective atmosphere, or, more precisely, set of dimensionsinto play.
this research developed hand-in-hand with rocket What the theory required was that, in addition to
science. The big discovery was the existence of a our familiar four-dimensional space-time, there
powerful X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus, would be six additional curled-up space dimen-
designated Cyg X-1. This discovery was made in a sions. Furthermore, the equations of string theory
rocket flight in 1964. The first X-ray satellite, Uhuru, imply that this six-dimensional component must
was launched in 1970, while its successor, Einstein, have a very particular structure, and in 1984 it

APRIL 2005 NOTICES OF THE AMS 423

 was proved that the Calabi-Yau manifolds have suggesting observations that might be made
precisely the structure needed. and what to look for in those observations. In
The gift of mathematics to physics provided by others, the results of the observations have forced
Calabi-Yau manifolds was amply repaid when physi- theorists to rethink some of their fundamental
cists discovered what was termed mirror sym- assumptions. One of the most striking examples
metry between pairs of geometrically distinct but along those lines was the discovery in 1998, in the
physically linked pairs of Calabi-Yau manifolds. course of examining a certain class of supernovae,
Using this link, Philip Candelas and his collabora- that the expansion of the universe, rather than
tors were able to suggest precise numerical an- slowing down under the restraining force of grav-
swers to a problem in algebraic geometry that had ity, appeared to be speeding up as a result of some
seemed far beyond the capabilities of any known mysterious, hitherto undreamed of force, dubbed
method to provide: the number of rational curves dark energy. One immediate thought was that this
of given degree on a fifth-degree algebraic hyper- was due to Einsteins notorious cosmological con-
surface in projective four-space. Those numbers stant. But even if it worked mathematically, that
that algebraic geometers were able to calculate di- would be no more of a physical explanation than
rectly confirmed the predictions arising from when Einstein originally inserted it into his equa-
physics. tion for what turned out to be the wrong reason:
The other circle of ideas involves what is known his equations seemed to imply that the universe was
as curvature flow. The simplest example con- expanding or contracting, rather than static in
sists of starting with a smooth closed curve in the
time, and this was just before the realization that
plane and defining a flow by moving the curve
the universe actually was expanding. The search
in a direction orthogonal to itself at each point
for a satisfactory explanation of dark energy is
and at a speed proportional to the curvature at the
sure to occupy a central place in the mathematics
point. Intuition suggests that the curve should be-
of cosmology for some time to come.
come progressively more circular. In 1986, Michael
Gage and Richard Hamilton were able to prove the General References
result, starting from an arbitrary convex curve and [1] MARCIA BARTUSIAK, Einsteins Unfinished Symphony:
normalizing the flow to fix the area enclosed. In a Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time, Berkley Pub-
rather different situation, Hamilton was led to lishing, 2003.
define and study a Ricci flow on an arbitrary [2] B RIAN G REENE , The Elegant Universe: Superstrings,
Riemannian manifold, in which the rate of change Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate
of the metric tensor is proportional to the Ricci Theory, W. W. Norton, New York, 1999.
tensor. After some rather spectacular successes [3] ROGER PENROSE, The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide
in which Hamilton was able to use his method to to the Laws of the Universe, Knopf, New York, 2005.
prove that under certain assumptions such a [4] SAUL PERLMUTTER, Supernovae, dark energy, and the ac-
celerating universe, Physics Today, April 2003, 5360.
flow tended toward a constant curvature metric,
[5] JOSEPH SILK, The Big Bang, revised and updated ed.,
Grigori Perelman announced in 2003 that he
Freeman, New York, 1989.
used extensions of the method to give complete [6] GEORGE SMOOT and KEAY DAVIDSON, Wrinkles in Time,
proofs of Poincars conjecture and the Thurston William Morrow, New York, 1993.
Geometrization Conjecture. Perelmans proof is [7] KIP S. THORNE, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einsteins
still under review by the mathematical community Outrageous Legacy, W. W. Norton, New York, 1994.
before being fully endorsed by the experts. Possi- [8] EDWARD WITTEN, Reflections on the fate of spacetime,
ble cosmological implications relate to character- Physics Today, April 1996, 2430.
izing shapes of three-dimensional manifolds that
may constitute the universe as it evolves in time. Technical References
In another direction, the curvature flow for [1] HUBERT L. BRAY, Black holes, geometric flows, and the
curves was generalized to higher-dimensional Penrose inequality in general relativity, Notices Amer.
hypersurfaces, leading to a proof of the Rie- Math. Soc. 49 (2002), 137281.
mannian Penrose inequality, first by Huisken and [2] IGNAZIO CIUFOLINI and JOHN A. WHEELER, Gravitation and
Ilmanen in 1997 for a single black hole and then Inertia, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1995.
[3] DAVID A. COX and SHELDON KATZ, Mirror Symmetry and
for multiple black holes in 1999 by Hubert Bray.
Algebraic Geometry, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI,
Roger Penrose was led to the inequality in 1973 by
2000.
a physical argument about the nature of black
[4] CHARLES W. MISNER, KIP S. THORNE, and JOHN A. WHEELER,
holes. Gravitation, W. H. Freeman, New York, 1973.
It need hardly be said that the number of [5] BARRETT ONEILL, Semi-Riemannian Geometry, with
topics touched upon here represents a minuscule Applications to Relativity, Academic Press, New York,
portion of the activity in recent decades in astro- 1983.
physics, cosmology, and related parts of mathe- [6] P. J. E. PEEBLES, Principles of Physical Cosmology, Prince-
matics. In some cases, theory has led the way, ton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1993.

424 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 52, NUMBER 4