Relativity
An Introduction to Special and General Relativity

Thoroughly revised and updated introduction to special and general relativity, with exercises and extensive bibliography.

Hans Stephani (Author)

9780521010696, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 12 February 2004

420 pages, 3 tables 102 exercises
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.752 kg

'… 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

Thoroughly revised and updated, this textbook provides a pedagogical introduction to relativity. It is self-contained, but the reader is expected to have a basic knowledge of theoretical mechanics and electrodynamics. It covers the most important features of both special and general relativity, as well as touching on more difficult topics, such as the field of charged pole-dipole particles, the Petrov classification, groups of motions, gravitational lenses, exact solutions and the structure of infinity. The necessary mathematical tools (tensor calculus, Riemannian geometry) are provided, most of the derivations are given in full, and exercises are included where appropriate. Written as a textbook for undergraduate and introductory graduate courses, it will also be of use to researchers working in the field. The bibliography gives the original papers and directs the reader to useful monographs and review papers.

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.

Subject Areas: Relativity physics [PHR], Physics [PH]