Going Global: A Faculty Connection between Peru and the United States

In 2003, the University System of Georgia sponsored the Peru Summer Institute for Faculty Development. A fortuitous meeting between Peruvian and U.S. faculty led to a faculty exchange with the shared goals of expanding cultural horizons, enhancing faculty through improved teaching and collaboration, and preparing students for the increasingly global reach of information technology. The experiences of this faculty exchange provide a framework for future collaboration between Peru’s information technology professionals and their colleagues in the United States. But perhaps more importantly, faculty and students discovered a synergy between designing information technology systems and the cultural contexts under which such systems operate

An introduction to local Black Hole horizons in the 3+1 approach to General Relativity

We present an introduction to dynamical trapping horizons as quasi-local models for black hole horizons, from the perspective of an Initial Value Problem approach to the construction of generic black hole spacetimes. We focus on the geometric and structural properties of these horizons aiming, as a main application, at the numerical evolution and analysis of black hole spacetimes in astrophysical scenarios. In this setting, we discuss their dual role as an "a priori" ingredient in certain formulations of Einstein equations and as an "a posteriori" tool for the diagnosis of dynamical black hole spacetimes. Complementary to the first-principles discussion of quasi-local horizon physics, we place an emphasis on the "rigidity" properties of these hypersurfaces and their role as privileged geometric probes into near-horizon strong-field spacetime dynamics.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures. Notes prepared for the course at the 2011 Shanghai Asia-Pacific School and Workshop on Gravitation (Shanghai Normal University, February 10-14, 2011

Horizons in the near-equilibrium regime

Quasi-static systems are an important concept in thermodynamics: they are dynamic but close enough to equilibrium that many properties of equilibrium systems still hold. Slowly evolving horizons are the corresponding concept for quasilocally defined black holes: they are "nearly isolated" future outer trapping horizons. This article reviews the definition and properties of these objects including both their mechanics and the role that they play in the fluid-gravity correspondence. It also introduces a new property: there is an event horizon candidate in close proximity to any slowly evolving horizon.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, will appear as a chapter of "Black Holes: New Horizons" edited by S. Haywar

Recent results in mathematical relativity

We review selected recent results concerning the global structure of solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations. The topics covered include quasi-local mass, strong cosmic censorship, non-linear stability, new constructions of solutions of the constraint equations, improved understanding of asymptotic properties of the solutions, existence of solutions with low regularity, and construction of initial data with trapped surfaces or apparent horizons. This is an expanded version of a plenary lecture, sponsored by Classical and Quantum Gravity, held at the GR17 conference in Dublin in July 2004.Comment: 16 pages, to appear in the proceedings of GRG17, Dubli

Integrated Management: A Coastal Community Perspective

This paper was prepared for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Regional Workshops on Small-Scale Fisheries "Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries: Bringing together responsible fisheries and social development". It presents a review of what are seen as 'good practices' globally in policy and governance of small-scale fisheries, with a particular focus on addressing rights-based issues, viewed broadly as incorporating fishery rights, other rights to natural resources, and rights and entitlements in relation to human, social and economic rights. It draws extensively on the 1995 Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and related technical guidelines, particularly those concerning small-scale fisheries and their roles in poverty alleviation and food security, and the human dimensions of the ecosystem approach to fisheries. The paper is also strongly informed by the papers prepared for and outcomes of the 2008 Global Conference on "Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries: Bringing together responsible fisheries and social development" and the relevant rights-oriented components of the 'Bangkok Statement' produced by the Civil Society Preparatory Workshop for the Global Conference. It also draws upon a set of research documents in the international literature focusing on small-scale fisheries and related policy issues [e.g., Allison et al. (2010), Charles (2009, 2011), McConney and Charles (2009); Kurien (2000, 2007)]

From Geometry to Numerics: interdisciplinary aspects in mathematical and numerical relativity

This article reviews some aspects in the current relationship between mathematical and numerical General Relativity. Focus is placed on the description of isolated systems, with a particular emphasis on recent developments in the study of black holes. Ideas concerning asymptotic flatness, the initial value problem, the constraint equations, evolution formalisms, geometric inequalities and quasi-local black hole horizons are discussed on the light of the interaction between numerical and mathematical relativists.Comment: Topical review commissioned by Classical and Quantum Gravity. Discussion inspired by the workshop "From Geometry to Numerics" (Paris, 20-24 November, 2006), part of the "General Relativity Trimester" at the Institut Henri Poincare (Fall 2006). Comments and references added. Typos corrected. Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit