Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-141) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1.Minkowskian space-time -- 1.1.Lorentz tansformations -- 1.2.Non-singular and singular Lorentz transformations -- 1.3.Infinitesimal Lorentz transformations -- 1.4.Geometrical construction of a gravitational wave -- 2.Plane gravitational waves -- 2.1.From linear approximation to colliding waves -- 2.2.Electromagnetic shock waves -- 2.3.Gravitational shock waves -- 2.4.High-frequency gravity waves -- 3.Equations of motion -- 3.1.Motivation -- 3.2.Example of a background space-time -- 3.3.Equations of motion of a Reissner-Nordstrom particle in first approximation -- 3.4.Background space-time for a Kerr particle -- 3.5.Equations of motion of a Kerr particle in first approximation -- 3.6.Spinning test particles -- 4.Inhomogeneous aspects of cosmology -- 4.1.Plane-fronted gravitational waves with a cosmological constant -- 4.2.Perturbations of isotropic cosmologies -- 4.3.Gravitational waves -- 4.4.Cosmic background radiation -- 5.Black holes -- 5.1.Introduction: Basic properties of black holes -- 5.2.Collapsing null shells and trapped surface formation -- 5.3.Scattering properties of high-speed Kerr black holes -- 5.4.Inside the black hole -- 5.5.Metric fluctuations and Hawking radiation -- 6.Higher dimensional black holes -- 6.1.Brief outline of D-dimensional black holes -- 6.2.Gibbons-Penrose isoperimetric inequality and the hoop conjecture in D dimensions -- 6.3.Light-like boost of higher dimensional black holes.