New approaches to higher-dimensional general relativity

Abstract

This PhD thesis contains a collection of work related to the algebraic classification of spacetimes in higher dimensions, including an up-to-date review of various aspects of the field. The work discussed includes the higher-dimensional Geroch-Held-Penrose formalism, a partial generalization of the Goldberg-Sachs theorem to higher-dimensions, and applications of these results to studying the stability of extremal black holes.

PhD thesis (University of Cambridge, submitted Jan 2011), 226 pages, 7 figures