Relativistic cosmology has in recent years become one of the most active and exciting branches of research, often considered to be today where particle physics was forty years ago, with major discoveries just waiting to happen. Consequently the part most affected by this second edition is the last part on cosmology. But there are additions, improvements, and new exercises throughout. _ The book's basic purpose is unchanged. It is to make relativity come alive conceptually, and to display the grand theoretical edifice that it is, with consequences in many branches of physics. The emphasis is on the foundations, on the logical subtleties, and on presenting the necessary mathematics - including differential geometry and tensors - but always as late and in as palatable a form as possible. Aided by over 300 exercises, the book seeks to promote an in-depth understanding, and the confidence to tackle any basic problem in relativity.
Autorentext
Professor Wolfgang Rindler Department of Physics The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX 75083-0688 USA
Inhalt
- Introduction
- 1: From absolute space and time to influenceable spacetime: an overview
- Part I: Special Relativity
- 2: Foundations of special relativity; the Lorentz transformation
- 3: Relativistic kinematics
- 4: Relativistic optics
- 5: Spacetime and four-vectors
- 6: Relativistic particle mechanics
- 7: Four-tensors; electromagnetism in vacuum
- Part II: General Relativity
- 8: Curved spaces and the basic ideas of general relativity
- 9: Static and stationary spacetimes
- 10: Geodesics, curvature tensor, and vacuum field equations
- 11: The Schwarzschild metric
- 12: Black holes and Kruskal space
- 13: An exact plane gravitational wave
- 14: The full field equations; de Sitter space
- 15: Linearized general relativity
- Part III: Cosmology
- 16: Cosmological spacetimes
- 17: Light propagation in FRW universes
- 18: Dynamics of FRW universes