The Yale Gravitation Physics Group proposes to study a number of important problems in theoretical General Relativity and relativistic astrophysics. In particular Professor Moncrief plans to continue his investigations of the properties of singularities of large classes of solutions of Einstein's equations. Using both exact analytic and higher order perturbative techniques, he hopes eventually to treat the general case of completely non-symmetric cosmological spacetimes near their curvature singular boundaries and to classify the different types of singularities that may occur. Moncrief has also been studying the dynamical properties of hypothetical self- gravitating cosmic strings and has proposed a numerical method for computing their interactions. He is also continuing to develop a perturbational approach to treating the gravitational radiation produced by astrophysically realistic models of rotating stellar core collapse and studying the possibility of overcharging a magnetically (or dyonically) charged black hole and thereby violating the Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.
