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Syllabus v2

This one-semester course introduces students to Einstein's theory of general relativity and its applications. [1] Students will learn the theoretical foundations of general relativity, including geometric objects in curved spacetime, Einstein's field equations, and tests of gravity. [2] They will also study applications like gravitational lensing, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. [3] Assessment includes assignments, problem sets, and a final exam.

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Samarth Gohel
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22 views2 pages

Syllabus v2

This one-semester course introduces students to Einstein's theory of general relativity and its applications. [1] Students will learn the theoretical foundations of general relativity, including geometric objects in curved spacetime, Einstein's field equations, and tests of gravity. [2] They will also study applications like gravitational lensing, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. [3] Assessment includes assignments, problem sets, and a final exam.

Uploaded by

Samarth Gohel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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General Relativity (Masters)

Course Information

Syllabus
The goal of this one-semester subject is to introduce you to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and its
applications to terrestrial and astrophysical phenomena. By the end of the semester, you should be able to
work confidently with the building blocks of the theory: geometric objects like vectors and one-forms,
curved space-time manifolds, and Einstein’s field equations. You should also be able to apply this
theoretical machinery to real-life problems, where general relativistic effects are measurable: laboratory and
solar system tests of gravity, gravitational radiation, relativistic stars, black holes, and cosmology. General
relativity ultimately tells us how to manipulate, calibrate, and interpret the rulers and clocks we use to
measure the world around us. Please keep in mind this practical and geometric facet of the subject, when
you are buried deep inside some tensor calculation that isn’t working out the way it should!

Part I: Theoretical tools of the trade

1. Introduction to gravity
a. Weak and strong gravity, order-of-magnitude estimates (stars, Universe, black holes)
b. Quantum gravity, Planck length, Hawking radiation, thermodynamic picture
2. Einstein’s Equivalence Principle
a. Universality of free fall, local Lorentz invariance, local position invariance
b. Experimental tests, gravitational redshift
3. Geometric objects
a. Vectors, one-forms, transformation laws, contraction
b. Metric tensor, scalar product
c. Index notation, raising and lowering indices
4. Kinematics
a. Events and intervals, time dilation, length contraction, space-time diagrams
b. Uniformly accelerated reference frames, Rindler coordinates, twin paradox
c. Does a freely falling electron radiate?
5. Calculus in curvilinear coordinates in flat space
a. Christoffel symbols, covariant derivative, Christoffel symbols from the metric
6. Curved space
a. Manifolds, local flatness and local Lorentz invariance
b. Lengths, volumes, divergence, Gauss’s law
c. Parallel transport, geodesics, Fermi-Walker transport
d. Riemann curvature tensor and its symmetries, Weyl tensor
e. Bianchi identities, Ricci tensor and scalar
7. Einstein’s gravity
a. History of the theory, review of the Equivalence Principle, local and global reference frames
b. Stress-energy tensor (ideal fluid, dust, electromagnetic field)
c. Einstein’s field equations G = 8T, cosmological constant, Einstein-Hilbert action,
alternative gravities
d. Conservation laws, Landau-Lifshitz stress-energy pseudotensor
e. Numerical relativity
8. Weak fields
a. Corrections to the Minkowski metric
b. Gauge transformations

Part II: Terrestrial and astronomical applications

9. General relativistic phenomena revisited


a. Gravitational lensing, macro and microlensing in astronomy
b. Gravitational redshift, Pound-Rebka experiment
c. Shapiro delay, Cassini satellite, binary pulsars
d. Mercury’s perihelion shift, periastron shifts in binary pulsars
e. Frame dragging, Lense-Thirring precession, Gravity Probe B, spin angular momentum,
geodetic precession of a binary pulsar
f. Nordtvedt effect, lunar ranging
g. Global positioning system
10. Gravitational radiation
a. Plane-wave propagation, dispersion relation in vacuo and in medio, polarization, energy-
momentum flux
b. Detection physics, modern detectors (LIGO, LISA, pulsar timing array)
c. Generation: Green function and tails, radiation fields, mass and current quadrupoles, virial
theorem
d. Astrophysics: stochastic background (cosmic strings, supermassive black hole mergers),
compact binary coalescence (including Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar), continuous-wave sources
(neutron stars), supernovae
11. Relativistic stars
a. Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation, equation of state, interior and exterior solutions, stellar
collapse, Chandrasekhar mass, gravitational redshift
b. Stellar pulsations
c. Accretion disks, iron spectral lines, ray tracing, Sgr A*
12. Black holes
a. Nature of singularities and horizons, Penrose diagram, Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates
b. Schwarzschild, Kerr, Ressiner-Nordtsrom, and Kerr-Newman solutions
c. Kepler problem (particles, photons), energy extraction, Blandford-Znajek mechanism
13. Cosmology in the form of a “tweet”
a. Homogeneity, isotropy, Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric, Friedmann equations,
cosmological expansion and redshift
b. Modern observations: cosmic microwave background, large-scale structure, Big Bang
nucleosynthesis
14. Beyond classical gravity (time permitting; not examinable)
a. Extra dimensions, Kaluza-Klein theory, black holes in more than four dimensions
b. Inflation
c. String theory
d. Exotica of your choice…

Recommended texts
 Schutz, A first course in general relativity (AM’s favourite)
 Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, Gravitation
 Wald, General relativity
 Weinberg, Gravitation and cosmology
 Landau and Lifshitz, Classical theory of fields
 Carroll, Spacetime and geometry: an introduction to general relativity (lecture notes on-line)
 Living Reviews in Relativity, on-line at relativity.livingreviews.org

Assessment
 Four assignments (10% each)
 Four-hour end-of-semester exam (60%)

On-line and other resources


 Two sets of lecture notes by Gherghetta and Kobakhidze
 Four problem sets and solutions
 Problems and solutions from Schutz’s textbook

Contact details
 Andrew Melatos, School of Physics, Room 311, [email protected]

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