BOOK REVIEW: The Scalar-Tensor Theory of Gravitation

Since the scalar-tensor theory of gravitation was proposed almost 50 years ago, it has recently become a robust alternative theory to Einstein's general relativity due to the fact that it appears to represent the lower level of a more fundamental theory and can serve both as a phenomenological theory to explain the recently observed acceleration of the universe, and to solve the cosmological constant problem. To my knowledge The Scalar-Tensor Theory of Gravitation by Y Fujii and K Maeda is the first book to develop a modern view on this topic and is one of the latest titles in the well-presented Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics series.

This book is an excellent readable introduction and up-to-date review of the subject. The discussion is well organized; after a comprehensible introduction to the Brans-Dicke theory and the important role played by conformal transformations, the authors review cosmologies with the cosmological constant and how the scalar-tensor theory can serve to explain the accelerating universe, including discussions on dark energy, quintessence and braneworld cosmologies. The book ends with a chapter devoted to quantum effects. To make easy the lectures of the book, each chapter starts with a summary of the subject to be dealt with. As the book proceeds, important issues like conformal frames and the weak equivalence principle are fully discussed. As the authors warn in the preface, the book is not encyclopedic (from my point of view the list of references is fairly short, for example, but this is a minor drawback) and the choice of included topics corresponds to the authors' interests. Nevertheless, the book seems to cover a broad range of the most essential aspects of the subject. Long and 'boring' mathematical derivations are left to appendices so as not to interrupt the flow of the reasoning, allowing the reader to focus on the physical aspects of each subject. These appendices are a valuable help in entering into the mathematical details.

The intended audience is graduate students and the book is in fact well suited to a graduate course (the way in which the book is arranged and the subjects are presented is very pedagogical). However, it is as well a very good book for researchers in cosmology and gravitation, who will find much material of interest. I am sure this book will recieve wide acceptance from researchers interested in this field.

J Ibánez