Spring 2006, Introduction to General Relativity Course Notes

Spring 2006, Introduction to General Relativity Course Notes



SPACE-TIME: IfA C221, Fern Room , 10:00-11:30 M,W
INSTRUCTOR: Jeff Kuhn
OFFICE: IfA B105
MAIN TEXT: Gravitation and Cosmology by Weinberg

General Goals:
This is an introductory course in General Relativity and gravitation. It will be useful to have a good working knowledge of electrodynamics and special relativity at the level of, for example, Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics, but we'll review as needed. I'll assign approximately biweekly problem sets and we'll have one or two inclass exams and individual oral GR topical presentations at the end of the term. The course material follows the subject outline below, but deviations are possible. The following books (soon to be on reserve at the library) will also be helpful:
Landau, L., Lifshitz, E.: Classical Theory of Fields
Misner, E., Thorne, K., and Wheeler, J.: Gravitation
Weinberg, S.: Gravitation and Cosmology
Will, C.: Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Physics

The easiest way to acquire the main text may be through "www.amazon.com" who claim to be able to ship the book in 2-3 days. The class is small so we have the chance to be "interactive" over the course schedule and emphasis. I encourage you to be vocal about your preferences in this matter.
Spring 2006 AST640, General Relativity Course Outline


No. Weeks Subject Text Chapter
1 Gravity Basics, Action Princ., WEP, SEP, ... 1., 2.1-2.2; L&L 2; Notes
2 Connections, metrics, geodesic equation 2.3-2.8,3
2 Tensors, parallel transport, covariance 4.1-4.10,notes
1 Stress tensor, fluids 5
2 Curvature Tensor, Field Equation... 6,7
1 Gravitomagnetic Effects notes
2 Spherically Symmetric Solutions, classical tests 8
2 Gravitational Radiation 10.1-10.5,notes
2 Cosmology/Oral Presentations notes

File translated from TEX by TTH, version 3.72.
On 8 Jan 2006, 14:50.