General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists

Book Description

After reviewing the basic concept of general relativity, this introduction discusses its mathematical background, including the necessary tools of tensor calculus and differential geometry. These tools are used to develop the topic of special relativity and to discuss electromagnetism in Minkowski spacetime. Gravitation as spacetime curvature is introduced and the field equations of general relativity derived. After applying the theory to a wide range of physical situations, the book concludes with a brief discussion of classical field theory and the derivation of general relativity from a variational principle.

An Introduction to General Relativity and Cosmology

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An Introduction to General Relativity and Cosmology
Jerzy Plebanski , and Andrzej Krasinski
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists
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ASIN: 052185623X

Book Description

General relativity is a cornerstone of modern physics, and is of major importance in its applications to cosmology. Plebanski and Krasinski are experts in the field and provide a thorough introduction to general relativity, guiding the reader through complete derivations of the most important results. Providing coverage from a unique viewpoint, geometrical, physical and astrophysical properties of inhomogeneous cosmological models are all systematically and clearly presented, allowing the reader to follow and verify all derivations. Many topics are included that are not found in other textbooks.

Relativity: An Introduction to Special and General Relativity

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Good general purpose book on GTR

Relativity: An Introduction to Special and General Relativity
Hans Stephani
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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A First Course in String Theory
Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation
A First Course in General Relativity
Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity
Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity

ASIN: 0521010691

Book Description

Thoroughly revised and updated, this self-contained textbook provides a pedagogical introduction to relativity. It covers the most important features of special as well as general relativity, and considers more difficult topics, such as charged pole-dipole particles, Petrov classification, groups of motions, gravitational lenses, exact solutions and the structure of infinity. The necessary mathematical tools are provided, most derivations are complete, and exercises are included where appropriate. The bibliography lists the original papers and also directs the reader to useful monographs and review papers. Previous Edition Hb(1990): 0-521-37066-3 Previous Edition Pb(1990): 0-521-37941-5

Customer Reviews:

Good general purpose book on GTR.......2005-11-29

I bought this because my copy of Misner Thorne & Wheeler was in a box 1400 miles away, and i wanted to toy around with some ideas in GTR. I needed a good text on GTR, not a watered-down no-math pop-level book, not a specialized research monograph omitting the basics, not a math formulas reference with no more content than an average cheat sheet, but something for those who already are familiar with GTR but lacking any of the usual academic works in their personal library. This book served my purpose perfectly. It comes with some bonuses - a better explanation of Petrov classification than i had seen anywhere else, more on electromagnetics and stress-energy tensors than i was shopping for, and conveniently sized to carry easily about town along with other stuff, something i can't say for the classic MT&W.

I imagine this would be an okay book for someone who doesn't know GTR but has already studied special relativity and is comfortable with senior undergraduate level physics. GTR is by nature a mind-bending subject, and a total newbie may want to get a taste of the main ideas elsewhere. MT&W, in contrast, is full of illustrations, exercises, and other goodies that make it an excellent choice for GTR beginners. Wald's book on General Relativity is another good choice, but my copy of this too is 1400 miles away...

Good features of this book are that it does not loose the physics behind a forest of math, and that it touches on many important areas - gravitational waves, the Kerr metric, tensor maths, cosmology. None in too much depth - but enough to understand the key concepts and see how different areas of general relativity are related. The bibliography seems shortish but appears sufficient for further pursuits. Some areas not covered include alternatives to GTR, string theory, quantization of GTR. Spinors are mentioned briefly; if one is interested in this important topic, Penrose & Rindler should be your destination.

There is no mention of the weak or strong energy conditions in the index. Perhaps these are mentioned somewhere, but the reader wanting to study this vital topic is better off with the book by Wald.

One area that could stand improvement are the exercises. There are exercised, but it would be nice to have more. A student relying on this book alone might end up feeling underexercised, wanting to pump more mental iron elsewhere. More numerical/quantitative exercises to give a feel for how much, how strong are special relativistic and GTR effects in everday and astrophysical applications, would be especially beneficial to this book's usefulness in an undergraduate course context. When used as a reference text, though, such exercises are not important; given my purpose, i am not disappointed.

Introduction to General Relativistic and Scalar-Tensor Cosmologies

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Introduction to General Relativistic and Scalar-Tensor Cosmologies
Marcelo Samuel Berman
Manufacturer: Nova Science Publishers
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ASIN: 1600210139

Relativity, Gravitation, and Cosmology: A Basic Introduction (Oxford Master Series in Physics)

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This book is a gem
Excellent Material to begin with and test yourself.

Relativity, Gravitation, and Cosmology: A Basic Introduction (Oxford Master Series in Physics)
Ta-Pei Cheng
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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A Modern Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (Oxford Master Series in Statistical, Computational, and Theoretical Physics)
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Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity
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An Introduction to Modern Cosmology

ASIN: 0198529570

Book Description

Einstein's general theory of relativity is introduced in this advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level textbook. Topics include special relativity in the formalism of Minkowski's four-dimensional space-time, the principle of equivalence, Riemannian geometry and tensor analysis, Einstein's field equation and cosmology. The author presents the subject from the very beginning with an emphasis on physical examples and simple applications without the full tensor apparatus. One first learns how to describe curved spacetime. At this mathematically more accessible level, the reader can already study the many interesting phenomena such as gravitational lensing, precession of Mercury's perihelion, black holes, as well as cosmology. The full tensor formulation is presented later, when the Einstein equation is solved for a few symmetric cases. Many modern topics in cosmology are discussed in this book: from inflation and cosmic microwave anisotropy to the "dark energy" that propels an accelerating universe. Mathematical accessibility, together with the various pedagogical devices (e.g., worked-out solutions of chapter-end problems), make it practical for interested readers to use the book to study general relativity, gravitation and cosmology on their own.

Customer Reviews:

This book is a gem.......2007-07-06

Intermediate level, with clear presentation, lots of graphics and exercises, ideal for self-study. In one word, excellent.

Excellent Material to begin with and test yourself........2005-02-25

I'm a second year astrophysics student from Ireland.
Recently I've tried to learn the Mathematics of General Relativity in detail, outside of my course and have bought numerous books in the process.

In my opinion this book and "A First Course in General Relativity by Bernard F. Schutz" are perfect complementary texts to learn the main basis of General Relativity on your own.

The author has provided an unbelievable amount of questions and not a single one of them is pointless exercise.

The book is Divided into three sections:

Part 1: Metric description of Space-Time
Very well written intro to General Relativity which delves into Black Holes and Mercury's Orbit, without the full on Field Equation and Tensors.

Part 2: Cosmology
Still keeping to the metric description of space-time, cosmology is introduced. The mathematics of concepts like the closed and open universes are explained really well.

Part 3: Full Tensor Formulism
I was able to learn Tensors from this, using Chapter 3 from Schutz's book as a companion.

The questions at the end of each chapter really test your knowledge and after reading this you will be able to manipulate the field equation for simple cases and move onto more advanced books if you wish.

General Relativity: An Introduction to the Theory of Gravitational Field

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No more, no less, just Perfect!!!
A somewhat outdated book
Superb organization and choice of topics.

General Relativity: An Introduction to the Theory of Gravitational Field

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book is an excellent introduction to the subjects of gravitation and space-time structure. It presumes a good background in special relativity, electrodynamics, and classical mechanics. The book discusses the foundations of Riemannian geometry; the derivation of the Einstein field equations; linearised theory, far fields and gravitational waves; the invariant characterization of exact solutions; gravitational collapse; cosmology; and a final chapter deals with alternative gravitation theories and the problem of quantum gravity. This revised and correct edition brings the experimental evidence up to date. In addition, the sections on quantum gravity have been rewritten and enlarged, and now form a coherent introduction to this subject.

Download Description

This nontechnical introduction to the theory of gravitation deals with those parts of the theory that are essential to the beginning student of general relativity, giving all the mathematics necessary for understanding the theory. In this revised second edition, the experimental evidence has been updated and the sections on quantum physics have been rewritten and enlarged. Starting with the foundations of Riemannian geometry and the tensor calculus, the author formulates and works out the essential laws of physics in Riemannian space. Next, the Einstein field equations are derived. All important applications of the theory are dealt with, including issues of current importance, in particular the Schwarzschild metric, gravitational waves, gravitational collapse, black holes and cosmological models. All the associated basic physical problems are fully discussed, but many results that draw heavily on mathematics are given without derivation. The relation to observations and the latest numerical results obtained from them is established.

Customer Reviews:

No more, no less, just Perfect!!!.......2005-07-12

Recently, I have used the book for some topics on GR and Cosmology. The basic Qs you expect from a book are WHY and HOW and this is the only book I came across on GR that answers both Qs. Although the HOW part is very short and examples are few but this book is clear and concise in all its treatments of GR which reflects the clear thinking of the author and his authority on the subject.
There are diagrams and drawing where needed and most important of all is that every chapter includes the references. In combination with a book like Inverno, where the mathematical treatment is extensive, it can be a great self-study combination.

Only the layout of this book is somewhat confusing and I guess that is due to the German translation and the fact that this is actually the compilation of the lectures but anyway it is much better than most of the recent text available on general relativity. Font size is small so it makes this book of 298 pages perhaps equivalent to 400 pages of larger font book. It is one of those books which convey the message clearly in one sentence instead of one page and perfectly suitable for the self-study. By the way I have Wheeler, Rindler, Inverno, Hartle and Dirac and this one I like most when it comes to self-study in limited time.

The chapters are in following order:
1:Introduction.
2:Foundation of Riemannian geometry.
3:Foundation of Einstein's theory of gravitation.
4:Linearised theory of gravitation, far field and gravitational waves.
5:Invariant character of exact solutions.
6:Gravitational collapse and black holes.
7:Cosmology.
8:Non-Einstein theories of gravitation.

A somewhat outdated book.......2000-11-01

This book is fairly complete in its coverage of the field of GR. Most of what one would expect to find is there -- an overview of tensor analysis, physical motivations, the classical solutions to Einstein's field equations, black holes and cosmology, and even some more advanced topics like a brief digression on quantum gravity.

However, the mathematical approach is old-fashioned and boring (for instance, tensors are still defined in terms of their behavior regarding coordinate transformation; no reference to multilinear forms and modern differential geometry). The analytical tools are introduced as a granitic block, somewhat disconnected from the physical reality they will be applied to. The exercises are definitely not inspired: they fail to be oriented towards developing the firm physical intuition and computational skills needed to effectively working out real-life problems -- I mean a researcher's real life, of course :-)

Overall and honestly, Stephani's book resembles works written over half a century ago, to which some notes on advanced topics are appended. Schutz's introductory text "A First Course in General Relativity" and Wald's more ambitious "General Relativity" are much better in all aspects.

Superb organization and choice of topics........1998-10-16

One of the very best texts currently available. Features an excellent choice of topics, superbly organized and clearly presented (well translated from the German original). Particularly strong on algebraic symmetries and invariant classification in addition to the usual topics.

An Introduction to Relativistic Gravitation

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Great Introduction!!
Relatvistic Gravitation

An Introduction to Relativistic Gravitation
Remi Hakim
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521459303

Book Description

This is an introductory textbook on applications of general relativity to astrophysics and cosmology. The aim is to provide advanced students with a toolkit for understanding astronomical phenomena that involve velocities close to that of light or intense gravitational fields. The author gives a thorough grounding in special relativity, with space-time the central concept. Examples of relativistic gravitation in action are drawn from the astrophysical domain. The book can be read on two levels: first as an introductory fast-track course, and then as a detailed course reinforced by problems that illuminate technical examples. The book has extensive links to the literature of relativistic astrophysics and cosmology.

Customer Reviews:

Great Introduction!!.......2002-06-06

This book represents, in my view, the best introduction to relativistic gravitation. The sequence of subtopics flows well and the "pictures" go a long way toward strengthening the written content.

Not, however, a book for the mathematically faint-at-heart; for a fairly untroubled reading one should have no fear of tensor analysis and some knowledge of differential forms is helpful. Finally, The translator (Dr. Andrew King) did a great job of crafting an intelligible English version.

If you are genuinely interested in this area of Physics, I recommend that you check this book out. However, if you're unwilling to engage in some serious thinking, I suggest you consider another topic altogether.

Relatvistic Gravitation.......2000-06-24

Relativistic Gravitation exceeded all my expectations for what I wanted to learn. I am only fifteen years old so i thought that an introduction would take me into this field of physics. I understood most of the book, except for the math. I thought it would help if he took the reader throug the math. This subject is incredibly interersting and the author did a great job.

Einstein's Space-Time: An Introduction to Special and General Relativity

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Einstein's Space-Time: An Introduction to Special and General Relativity
Rafael Ferraro
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387699465

Book Description

This is a textbook addressed to students in Physics and other people interested in Relativity and History of Physics. The book contains a complete account of Special Relativity that begins with the historical analysis of the reasons that led to a change in our manner of regarding the space and time. The first chapters are aimed to afford a deep understanding of the relativistic spacetime and its consequences for Dynamics. The chapter about covariant formulation includes the concepts of volume and hypersurfaces in manifolds, energy-momentum tensor of a fluid, etc., and prepares the language for General Relativity. The last two chapters are devoted to introduce General Relativity and Cosmology in a modern approach connected with the latest discoveries in these areas.

General Relativity: An Introduction to the Theory of the Gravitational Field

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General Relativity: An Introduction to the Theory of the Gravitational Field
Hans Stephani
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This book is an introduction to the theory of gravitation. It deals in an elementary way with those parts of the theory that are essential to the beginning student of general relativity, giving all the mathematics necessary to an understanding of the theory. Starting from the foundations of Riemannian geometry and the tensor calculus, the author formulates and works out the essential laws of physics in a Riemannian space. Next, the Einstein field equations are derived. All important applications of the theory are dealt with, including issues of current importance, in particular the Schwarzchild metric, gravitational waves, gravitational collapse, black holes and cosmological models. All the associated basic physical problems are fully discussed, but many results that draw heavily on mathematics are given without derivation. In the rather more demanding chapters on selected vector fields, groups of motion and the Petrov classification, methods are discussed which have proved to be especially fruitful in modern research.

Gravity, Black Holes, and the Very Early Universe: An Introduction to General Relativity and Cosmology

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Gravity, Black Holes, and the Very Early Universe: An Introduction to General Relativity and Cosmology
Tai L. Chow
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Chow introduces the mathematical methods essential to understanding and applying general relativity--tensor calculus, some differential geometry, etc.--but leaves to more advanced references derivations that a beginning student would likely find overly long and tedious. The book employs standard tensor analysis--which requires only basic calculus for its understanding--and resists the temptation to adopt more powerful mathematical formalisms (like exterior calculus and differential forms) used by researchers in the field. In this way, the student can concentrate on learning physics--and not be distracted by the complexities of unfamiliar mathematical methods.

The book also offers comprehensive discussion of the physics of black holes. The author hits just the right level of presentation: sufficient mathematical detail to demonstrate or make plausible the physical attributes of black holes - in contrast to "hand-waving" discussions found in popularizations of the subject - yet not so much mathematics as to lose track of the physics in an impenetrable forest of equations. An equally strong point is the author's discussion of the most exciting contemporary issues in astrophysics apart from black holes: recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background, the existence of the cosmological constant, dark matter, dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the universe. The final chapters on unification and inflation are also very well done and not generally found in other introductory treatments of general relativity.

In sum, the book is highly informative and has a user-friendly style, which should make it an attractive choice for teachers and students.

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