Moments with Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich

A recollection of special moments spent with Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich and with the scientists of Soviet Union and abroad.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the international conference "The Sun, the Stars, The Universe and General Relativity" in honor of Ya.B. Zeldovich 95th Anniversary, held in Minsk, Belarus on April 20-23, 200

The Dyadosphere of Black Holes and Gamma-Ray Bursts

Recent works on the Dyadosphere are reviewed.Comment: A&A macros, 4 pages and 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of 19th Texas Symposium, Dec. 199

Black Hole Formation and Gamma Ray Bursts

Recent work on the dyadosphere of a black hole is reviewed with special emphasis on the explanation of gamma ray bursts. A change of paradigm in the observations of black holes is presented.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the ESO workshop on "Black Holes in Binaries and Galactic Nuclei", in honour of Prof. R. Giacconi, edited by L. Kaper, E.P.J. van den Heuvel, and P.A. Woudt, and printed in the series ESO Astrophysics Symposia by Springer (2000

Charges in gravitational fields: from Fermi, via Hanni-Ruffini-Wheeler, to the "electric Meissner effect"

Recent developments in obtaining a detailed model for gamma ray bursts have shown the need for a deeper understanding of phenomena described by solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations, reviving interest in the behavior of charges close to a black hole. In particular a drastic difference has been found between the lines of force of a charged test particle in the fields of Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom black holes. This difference characterizes a general relativistic effect for the electric field of a charged test particle around a (charged) Reissner-Nordstrom black hole similar to the "Meissner effect" for a magnetic field around a superconductor. These new results are related to earlier work by Fermi and Hanni-Ruffini-Wheeler.Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures, to appear on the Proceedings of "Analysis, manifolds and geometric structures in physics", International Conference in Honour of Y. Choquet-Bruhat, Isola d'Elba June 24th-26th, 200

Analogies, new paradigms and observational data as growing factors of Relativistic Astrophysics

Patterns in the scientific developments of Relativistic Astrophysics are analyzed with special attention to the physics and astrophysics of Black Holes and Gamma Ray Bursts.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, to appear in "Fluctuating Paths and Fields - Dedicated to Hagen Kleinert on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday", Eds. W. Janke, A. Pelster, H.-J. Schmidt, and M. Bachmann (World Scientific, Singapore, 2001), p. 77