General Relativity: The Essentials

A straightforward introduction to General Relativity, explaining the physical, philosophical and mathematical ideas it is built on.

Carlo Rovelli (Author)

9781316516072, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 September 2021

180 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.3 cm, 0.38 kg

'The book brims with surprising physical intuitions… but … also presents many technical, mathematical topics in their simplest possible form and then builds on them… It should be essential to those who want to understand where general relativity comes from and its conceptual core. It will also help serious students prepare for more mathematically difficult literature… Rovelli's excitement about doing research at the edge of what is known is palpable. It provides students with a rare look into researchers' ideas as they create them.' Hal M. Haggard, Physics Today

In this short book, renowned theoretical physicist and author Carlo Rovelli gives a straightforward introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, our current theory of gravitation. Focusing on conceptual clarity, he derives all the basic results in the simplest way, taking care to explain the physical, philosophical and mathematical ideas at the heart of “the most beautiful of all scientific theories”. Some of the main applications of General Relativity are also explored, for example, black holes, gravitational waves and cosmology, and the book concludes with a brief introduction to quantum gravity. Written by an author well known for the clarity of his presentation of scientific ideas, this concise book will appeal to university students looking to improve their understanding of the principal concepts, as well as science-literate readers who are curious about the real theory of General Relativity, at a level beyond a popular science treatment.

What is General Relativity? Part I. Bases: 1. Physics: a field theory for gravity
2. Philosophy: what are space and time? 3. Mathematics: curved space
Part II. The Theory: 4. Basic equations
5. Action
6. Symmetries and interpretation
Part III. Applications: 7. Newtonian limit
8. Gravitational waves
9. Cosmology
10. The field of a mass
11. Black holes
12. Elements of quantum gravity
Index.

Subject Areas: Relativity physics [PHR], Gravity [PHDV], Cosmology & the universe [PGK]