Planck Scale Effects in Astrophysics and Cosmology

It has been generally agreed that putting together the principles of quantum theory and general relativity will usher the next revolution in physics. The trouble, of course, is that we have been now waiting for several decades for this revolution to take place. While people get excited about different directions of development every once in a while (with some excitements propped up by a larger number of researchers than others), it is probably fair to say that nothing which can be called definitive progress has taken place in the last several decades. Given the state of affairs it is definitely worthwhile to keep an open mind regarding new ideas and have at least a small fraction of researchers working somewhat away from the mainstream. This could possibly lead to new insights which have been missed by the more conventional mainstream approaches and could even finally provide a much awaited breakthrough. The collection of articles in this book should probably be viewed against such a backdrop. A few of the articles contained in the book deal with topics which are probably not mainstream. But all the speakers have presented their ideas clearly and in a proper setting, making many of the articles quite useful for a person who wants to obtain a bird's eye view. The connecting thread is essentially whether some aspects of quantum gravitational physics can lead to potentially observable effects or provide explanations for known effects. The book also contains a few overview articles of exceptional clarity. In particular I would like to mention the one by E Alvarez on quantum gravity, the one by L Smolin on loop quantum gravity and J Martin's article on the origin of cosmological perturbations. The rest of the articles are more focussed on possible quantum gravity phenomenology and discuss diverse topics such as astrophysical bounds of Lorentz violations, doubly special relativity and the role of quantum form in quantum gravity phenomenon. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the articles in this book and it must have been an exciting conference. (The book under review is based on the lectures given at the 40th Karpacz Winter School.) This is a valuable addition to any library and will serve as a useful source of information for any graduate student or researcher who wants to enter or appreciate this field. (book review)