Sidney Coleman's Lectures on Relativity

This book is based on a graduate course on relativity given by Sidney Coleman at Harvard during the 1960s.

David J. Griffiths (Edited by), David Derbes (Edited by), Richard B. Sohn (Edited by)

9781316511725, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 2022

223 pages
25.6 x 17.5 x 1.7 cm, 0.65 kg

'In Sidney Coleman's Lectures on Relativity, we get the benefit of Sidney's questions. There are hundreds of question marks here, some leading the reader to the next topic and some highlighting confusing subtleties. It is not the Socratic method exactly because most of the questions are addressed to the smartest person in the room – Sidney himself. But his supremely logical answers lead the reader through this important subject.' Howard Georgi, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Harvard University

Sidney Coleman (1937–2007) earned his doctorate at Caltech under Murray Gell-Mann. Before completing his thesis, he was hired by Harvard and remained there his entire career. A celebrated particle theorist, he is perhaps best known for his brilliant lectures, given at Harvard and in a series of summer school courses at Erice, Sicily. Three times in the 1960s he taught a graduate course on Special and General Relativity; this book is based on lecture notes taken by three of his students and compiled by the Editors.

Preface. Part I. Special Relativity: 1. The geometry of special relativity
2. Relativistic mechanics
3. Relativistic electrodynamics. Part II. General Relativity: 4. The principle of equivalence
5. Differential geometry
6. Gravity
7. The Schwarzschild solution
8. Conservation and cosmology
Afterword
Appendix A – Compendium of formulas
Appendix B – Final exams. Index.

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