Preface

The fifth Marcel Grossmann meeting in Perth, Western Australia, took place in the week commencing on the auspicious date 8-8-88. What also proved an auspicious choice was made in 1986 for the poster first announcing Western Australia as the venue for MG5. The poster displayed a scene only visible in the southern hemisphere sky - a photograph by David MaIm of our galactic neighbour the Large Magellanic Cloud. A copy appeared also on the front of the first circular. By the time the latter was in the mail the LMC had trumpeted its own cosmic summons with supernova 1987a.

Another MaIm photograph of part of the LMC was then the natural choice for the cover of the second circular - this time a dramatic image of its star performer! The latter also featured prominently in a number of sessions at the actual meetings.

Not without a share of unexpected hitches, last minute alarms, and enforced timetable changes, the meetings duly started on time at 9 am on 8888. After welcomes and introductions the Australian Government Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce, Senator John Button opened the scientific meetings of MG5. With his remarks, the minister demonstrated that the Government of Australia - more so than that of many other countries - fully recognized the dependence of national welfare on a vibrant scientific community and on the interplay between fundamental and applied research. Senator Button then presented the three Marcel Grossman Awards These take the form of a citation certificate and a scale replica in silver of the symbol of the Grossman meetings, the Attilio Pierelli sculpture, T.E.S.T. (Transcinamento di Eventi Spazio Temporali (Dragging of Spacetime Events))

The recipients of the awards were Satio Hayakawa, John Archibald Wheeler and The University of Western Australia. Illustrated are reduced copies of the three citation certificates.

After the presentations and the departure of the official party, the scientific program began, the first session, under the chairmanship of Professor Khalatnikov. Thanks are due to him and to all others who chaired the sessions, both for that role and, in many cases. for their assistance in arranging the contributed part of the program.

On Monday evening the official opening ceremony took place at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, at a reception hosted by the Premier of the State, The Honourable Peter Dowding. There the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir Ninian Stephen, performed the formal opening. In his address he drew on the crucial role of science in the emergence, to European awareness, of the actual continent of Australia from the earlier theoretical speculations of a Terra Australis - an example of the "singular fascination of the suspected but as yet unverified".

After Sir Ninian Stephen's address, which is reproduced in these pages, a unique, world-first musical event was presented by the Tunc Ensemble, coordinated by Evos Music.

The "sounds" of pulsars have previously been incorporated into contempory music - an example being a composition using the Vela pulsar, featured at MG4 in Rome. However we believe that never before have the signals been incorporated in a performance as an actual improvisation, as they are received, in real time. By courtesy of Telecom Australia, the signal from Pulsar 1749-28, three thousand light years away and received at the University of Sydney Molonglo Radio Telescope in NSW, was beamed across Australia, ultimately to a mobile receiver just outside the Art Gallery. There, played over loud speakers, its enigmatic, fluctuating, rhythmic beat was incorporated into their piece "Earth Resonance" by the accomplished ensemble. To them, to Telecom and to the University of Sydney, we record our appreciation.

One particular objective of the organisers was to involve the interest, as far as possible, of the general public. A regular feature of the annual calendar at the University of Western Australia is a series of public lectures - the Octagon Lectures (named for the shaped 700 seat theatre in which they are held). For 1988 the series was titled "Views of the Universe" and the five lectures were by speakers at MG5. They were an outstanding success and, because of overflow demand, even had to be repeated a second time. A copy of the public notice, listing the series is reproduced opposite. The drawing is by aboriginal artist Shane Pickett whose image became a popular and familiar sight at the meetings, since it was used to decorate many conference devices, including the satchels, and had appeared on the cover of the third circular.

The contents of these proceedings are presented in a structure reflecting that of the meeting program. The first sections consist, with one exception, of the morning plenary lectures. The program was structured as six streams covering topics from the abstract and mathematical, to cosmology, mathematical and observational astrophysics and experimental gravitation. The experimental streams were partially sponsored by the USSR-Australia Science and Technology exchange agreement and incorporated a workshop entitled Precision Experiments in Gravitation and Time.

No event of this magnitude can take place without much hard work by many people nor without financial support from sponsors. Lists of the organizers and of the sponsors are on other pages and grateful acknowledgment is made to them all. We extend our thanks to the members of the International Organising Committee and the International Coordinating Committee who assisted in the planning of the Conference, and particularly to Remo Ruffini without whose enthusiasm it would never have occurred. As well as those already mentioned, thanks are due to many others who assisted, some indispensably, in less formal ways. These include Raelene Selkirk, Matthew Young, Don and Ginny Russell and many students who enthusiastically assisted.

We also take this opportunity of placing on record our thanks to the Governor General, Sir Ninian Stephen, the Governor of the State of Western Australia, Professor Gordon Reid, Senator John Button, The Honourable Barry Jones, Minister for Science, The Honourable Peter Dowding, the Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Robert Smith and Professor Robert Parfitt, the Department of Music and finally the head and members of the Department of Physics.

D G BLAIR

M J BUCKINGHAM