General Relativity Autumn 2024
Lecture Notes, Exercises, Solutions, and more ...
The most recent and up-do-date information about this course
will always be available here!
The Course and Lectures: How and When and Where
- General Information:
-
There is no need to register for this course, but if you are going to take part please send me an email (blau at itp unibe ch) so that I can set up a mailing list. Thank You!
- There is no plan to record / podcast this course.
- The schedule is:
- Monday 13h15 -- 15h
- Tuesday 12h15 -- 14h
-
The course will take place in Lecture Hall 119 and we will
start on Monday September 16 at 13h15
- Further Information: Please watch this page for the latest information about the course and the lectures!
Lecture Notes
- GR Lecture Notes Website (overview)
- [newlecturesGR.pdf] (direct link to the pdf-file)
- Note:
this new version has 900+ pages (!).
Please save trees and don't print all of it at once, we will only cover some small parts of
the notes in the course
Prerequisites
- Covariant Formulation of Special Relativity (Minkowski Geometry, Lorentz Tensor Algebra etc.)
- Classical Field Theory (Action Principles for Fields)
- Multivariable Calculus
Contents
- Physical and Mathematical Foundations of General Relativity
- Equivalence Principle
- Geodesics
- Tensor Algebra and Tensor Calculus
- Riemannian Geometry and Curvature Tensor
- Physics in a Gravitational Field
- Einstein-Equations and Einstein-Hilbert Action
- Selected Applications
- Solar System Tests of General Relativity
- Black Holes
- Basics of Cosmology
- ...
Rough Outline
- Week 01: Section 01
- Week 02: Section 02
- Week 03: Section 03
- Week 04: Section 04 & Section 25
- Week 05: Sections 04 / 05 & Sections 25 / 26
- Week 06: Section 05 /06 & Section 26 / 27
- Week 07: Sections 06 / 07 & Section 27
- Week 08: Sections 07 / 08 & Section 27
- Week 09: Section 08 & Sections 19, 20
- Week 10: Sections 19, 20, 24
- Week 11: Sections 09, 10 & Section 23
- Week 12: Sections 33 -- 38
- Week 13: Sections 33 -- 38
- Week 14: Sections 33 -- 38
(note: Section XX means that we will cover some bits and pieces of that section)
Exercises and Solutions
Highly Recommended Literature
- Excellent Introductory (Undergraduate) Text
- J.B. Hartle: Gravity, An introduction to Einstein's General Relativity
- Elegant Modern Slightly More Advanced Books
- R.M. Wald: General Relativity
- S. Carroll: Spacetime and Geometry, an Introduction to General Relativity
- Classics
- C.W. Misner, K.S. Thorne, J.A. Wheeler: Gravitation
- S. Weinberg: Gravitation and Cosmology
- Other Personal Favourites
- R.U. Sexl, H.K. Urbantke: Gravitation und Kosmologie
- N. Straumann: General Relativity
- S.W. Hawking, G.F.R. Ellis: The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
- E. Poisson: A Relativist's Toolkit
- Other Recommended Recent/New Books
- A. Zee: Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell
GR Lectures Notes on the WWW and related Online Resources
Note: the resources mentioned below are approved/recommended. If you come across, and want to use, some other
online resources, please come and show them to me (also in GR, there is much more low- than high-quality
stuff floating around on the WWW and it may not always be easy for you to decide at first sight which is which).
Please let me know of any broken (no longer existing) links.
- Albert Einstein:
Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (Annalen der Physik, 1916)
- Einstein Papers Project
- GR Lecture Notes: General
- GR Lecture Notes: Black Holes
- GR Lecture Notes: Cosmology
- Was Einstein Right? (Ask Clifford M. Will!)
- GR Lecture Notes: Other
- Other Useful, Informative or Entertaining Online Resources
- Is our Universe a Black Hole? NO And since I get
asked this question again and again (as if there weren't more interesting questions), usually by people
who understand neither cosmology nor black holes, here are some links:
- Important Advice (from Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft):
Contact
- Matthias Blau, Office 220a