Robert Geroch (born 1 June 1942 in Akron, Ohio)^[1] is an American theoretical physicist and professor at the University of Chicago. He has worked prominently on general relativity and mathematical physics and has promoted the use of category theory in mathematics and physics. He was the Ph.D. supervisor for Abhay Ashtekar, Basilis Xanthopoulos and Gary Horowitz. He also proved an important theorem in spin geometry.^[2][3]

Education

Geroch obtained his Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1967 under the supervision of John Archibald Wheeler, with a thesis on Singularities in the spacetime of general relativity: their definition, existence, and local characterization.^[4]

Writings

Chapters

• Geroch R.P. (1977) "Asymptotic Structure of Space-Time", p.1--105 in: Esposito F.P., Witten L. (eds) Asymptotic Structure of Space-Time. Springer, Boston, MA. doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-2343-3_1

• Horowitz, G.T and Geroch, R.P. (1979) "Global structure of spacetimes", p.212--293. In Hawking S.W. and Israel, W (eds): General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey. Cambridge University Press 1979 (ISBN 9780521299282)

Articles

• Geroch, R.P. (1966) "Singularities in closed universes," Phys.Rev.Lett. 17 (1966) 445--447. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.17.445
• Geroch, R.P. (1967) "Topology in general relativity," J.Math.Phys. 8, 782--786. doi:10.1063/1.1705276
• Geroch, Robert (1968), "Spinor Structure of Space-Times in General Relativity. I", Journal of Mathematical Physics, 9 (11): 1739–1743, Bibcode:1968JMP.....9.1739G, doi:10.1063/1.1664507
• Geroch, R.P. (1970) "Multipole Moments. I. Flat Space" J.Math.Phys. 11, (1970), 1955-1961. doi:10.1063/1.1665348
• Geroch, R.P. (1970) "The Domain of Dependence," J.Math.Phys. 11 (1970) 437--439. doi:10.1063/1.1665157
• Geroch, R.P. (1971) "Space-time structure from a global viewpoint," Rend. Scu. Int. Fis. Enrico Fermi 47: 71-103(1971); in B.K.Sachs, ed. , General Relativity and Cosmology (New York, Academic Press, 1971).
• Geroch, R.P. (1971) "A Method for generating solutions of Einstein's equations," J.Math.Phys. 12 (1971) 918--924. doi:10.1063/1.1665681
• Geroch, R.P. (1972) "A Method for generating solutions of Einstein's equations. 2.," J.Math.Phys. 13 (1972) 394--404. doi:10.1063/1.1665990

• Geroch, R.P. (1972), "Einstein algebras," Comm. Math. Phys., 26 (4), 271--275. doi:10.1007/BF01645521

• Geroch, R.P., Kronheimer, E.H., and Penrose, R. (1972) "Ideal points in space-time," Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A327, 545--567. doi:10.1098/rspa.1972.0062

• Ashtekar, A. and Geroch, R.P. (1974), "Quantum theory of gravitation", Rept. Prog. Phys., 37, 1211--1256. doi:10.1088/0034-4885/37/10/001

Books

• R. Geroch (1981). General Relativity from A to B. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-28863-3.
• R. Geroch (1985). Mathematical Physics (Lectures in Physics). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-28862-5.
• R. Geroch (2009). Perspectives in computation. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-28855-0.
• R. Geroch (2013). Geometrical Quantum Mechanics: 1974 Lecture Notes (Lecture Notes Series) (Volume 3). Minkowski Institute Press; 1 edition. ISBN 978-1927763049.

Unpublished notes

• Course Notes, Problem Sets, and Short Topics, for Lecture courses at the University of Chicago, primarily in the 1970s.
• Suggestions For Giving Talks, Notes on giving scientific talks, 1973. Available at: arXiv:gr-qc/9703019