General Relativity for the Gifted Amateur

Tom Lancaster, Stephen Blundell (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

640 Seiten

2025
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-286741-4 (ISBN)

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Using numerous worked examples, diagrams and careful physically motivated explanations this book will smooth the path towards understanding the radically different and revolutionary view of the physical world that general relativity provides and which all physicists should have the opportunity to experience.

General relativity is one of the most profound statements in science. It is a theory of gravity that allows us to model the large-scale structure of the Universe, to understand and explain the motions and workings of stars, to reveal how gravity interacts with light waves and even how it hosts its own gravitational waves.

It is central to our notions of where the Universe comes from and what its eventual fate might be. For those wishing to learn physics, general relativity enjoys a dubious distinction. It is frequently viewed as a difficult theory, whose mastery is a rite of passage into the world of advanced physics and is described in an array of unforgiving, weighty textbooks aimed firmly at aspiring professionals.

Written by experimental physicists and aimed at providing the interested amateur with a bridge from undergraduate physics to general relativity, this book is designed to be different. The imagined reader is a gifted amateur possessing a curious and adaptable mind looking to be told an entertaining and intellectually stimulating story, but who will not feel patronised if a few mathematical niceties are spelled out in detail.

Using numerous worked examples, diagrams and careful physically motivated explanations, this book will smooth the path towards understanding the radically different and revolutionary view of the physical world that general relativity provides and which all physicists should have the opportunity to experience.

Tom Lancaster is Professor of Physics at Durham University. His research interests include using muons to investigate low-dimensional and molecular magnetism. Stephen Blundell is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, and a Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College. His research interests include muon-spin rotation, density functional techniques, and spin liquids.

0: Overture
I Geometry and mechanics in at spacetime
1: Special relativity
2: Vectors in at spacetime
3: Coordinates
4: Linear slot machines
5: The metric
II Curvature and general relativity
6: Finding a theory of gravitation
7: Parallel lines and the covariant derivative
8: Free fall and geodesics
9: Geodesic equations and connection coecients
10: Making measurements in relativity
11: Riemann curvature and the Ricci tensor
12: The energy-momentum tensor
13: The gravitational field equations
14: The triumphs of general relativity
III Cosmology
15: An introduction to cosmology
16: Robertson-Walker spaces
17: The Friedmann equations
18: Universes of the past and future
19: Causality, infinity and horizons
IV Orbits, stars and black holes
20: Newtonian orbits
21: The Schwarzschild geometry
22: Motion in the Schwarzschild geometry
23: Orbits in the Schwarzschild geometry
24: Photons in the Schwarzschild geometry
25: Black holes
26: Black-hole singularities
27: Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates
28: Hawking radiation
29: Charged and rotating black holes
V Geometry
30: Classical curvature
31: A reintroduction to geometry
32: Differential forms
33: Exterior and Lie derivatives
34: Geometry of the connection
35: Riemann curvature revisited
36: Cartan's method
37: Duality and the volume form
38: Forms, chains and Stokes' theorem
VI Classical and quantum fields
39: Fluids as dry water
40: Lagrangian field theory
41: Inflation
42: The electromagnetic field
43: Charge conservation and the Bianchi identity
44: Gauge fields
45: Weak gravitational fields
46: Gravitational waves
47: The properties of gravitons
48: Higher-dimensional spacetime
49: From classical to quantum gravity
50: The Big-Bang singularity
A: Further reading
B: Conventions and notation
C: Manifolds and bundles
D: Embedding
E: Answers to selected problems

Erscheint lt. Verlag	29.1.2025
Zusatzinfo	302 line illustrations and cartoons
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	189 x 246 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Hochenergiephysik / Teilchenphysik
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Relativitätstheorie
ISBN-10	0-19-286741-5 / 0192867415
ISBN-13	978-0-19-286741-4 / 9780192867414
Zustand	Neuware