Relativity: An Introduction to Special and General Relativity

ISBN-13: 9780521010696 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 420 str.

Hans Stephani

Opis

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

Recenzje

'… the book is well written and contains a fair selection of topics for a beginning student of general relativity … Besides being a textbook, because of its standard notation and clear style it can also be used as a reference … Hans Stephani has produced a fine textbook of general relativity in the classical tradition.' General Relativity and Gravitation

Spis treści

Preface; Notation; Part I. Special Relativity: 1. Introduction: inertial systems and Galilei invariance of classical mechanics; 2. Light propagation in moving coordinate systems and Lorentz transformations; 3. Our world as a Minkowski space; 4. Mechanics of special relativity; 5. Optics of plane waves; 6. Four-dimensional vectors and tensors; 7. Electrodynamics in vacuo; 8. Transformation properties of electromagnetic fields: examples; 9. Null vectors and the algebraic properties of electromagnetic field tensors; 10. Charged point particles and their field; 11. Pole-dipole particles and their field; 12. Electrodynamics in media; 13. Perfect fluids and other physical theories; Part II. Riemannian Geometry: 14. Introduction: the force-free motion of particles in Newtonian mechanics; 15. Why Riemannian geometry?; 16. Riemannian space; 17. Tensor algebra; 18. The covariant derivative and parallel transport; 19. The curvature tensor; 20. Differential operators, integrals and integral laws; 21. Fundamental laws of physics in Riemannian spaces; Part III. Foundations of Einstein's Theory of Gravitation: 22. The fundamental equations of Einstein's theory of gravitation; 23. The Schwarzschild solution; 24. Experiments to verify the Schwarzschild metric; 25. Gravitational lenses; 26. The interior Schwarzschild solution; Part IV. Linearized Theory of Gravitation, Far Fields and Gravitational Waves: 27. The linearized Einstein theory of gravity; 28. Far fields due to arbitrary matter distributions and balance equations for momentum and angular momentum; 29. Gravitational waves; 30. The Cauchy problem for the Einstein field equations; Part V. Invariant Characterization of Exact Solutions: 31. Preferred vector fields and their properties; 32. The Petrov classification; 33. Killing vectors and groups of motion; 34. A survey of some selected classes of exact solutions; Part VI. Gravitational Collapse and Black Holes: 35. The Schwarzschild singularity; 36. Gravitational collapse - the possible life history of a spherically symmetric star; 37. Rotating black holes; 38. Black holes are not black - relativity theory and quantum theory; 39. The conformal structure of infinity; Part VII. Cosmology: 40. Robertson-Walker metrics and their properties; 41. The dynamics of Robertson-Walker metrics and the Friedmann universes; 42. Our Universe as a Friedmann model; 43. General cosmological models; Bibliography; Index.