Phys 8501.001

There will be no examinations. The course grade will be based on weekly homework assignments and class attendance. Students are allowed to discuss the homework problems with each other. The rules are:

1. Each student must write up his or her own solutions.

2. List other students you discussed the problems with.

3. If you used any resources other than the required text, such as books, articles, web sites, past homework solutions, and so on, you must list them on your homework.

In order to be as flexible as possible with office hours students can either make an appointment or stop by my office and I will be happy to help unless I am otherwise occupied.

Required

Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity, Sean Carroll (2003)

This is commonly used in graduate physics courses at major universities.

Recommended Classics

Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity, Steven Weinberg (1972)

This book favors the tensorial over the geometrical approach to make connection to non-gravitational physical theories.

Gravitation, Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, and John Archibald Wheeler (1973)

Considered the encyclopedia of general relativity but not a textbook for the beginner.

The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, S. W. Hawking and G. F. R. Ellis (1973)

This book focusses on geometry and singularities.

Recommended Alternatives

Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, James B. Hartle (2003)

Less in-depth and usually adopted for undergraduate courses.

General Relativity, Robert M. Wald (1984)

A more modern approach than the classics but not for the beginner.

Ricci is a Mathematica package for doing symbolic tensor computations that arise in differential geometry. It can be accessed at this website: http://www.math.washington.edu/~lee/Ricci

These are a few references to the visual/photographic appearance of rapidly moving objects. The interested reader can find more by looking up the papers cited or by doing a Google search.

V. F. Weisskopf, Physics Today 19, September 1960, pp. 24-27. http://www.phy.pmf.unizg.hr/~npoljak/files/clanci/weisskopf.pdf

F. R. Hickey, Am. J. Phys. 47, August 1979, pp. 711-714. http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/honours/labs/relativistic_camera/relcam.pdf

U. Krauss, January 2000, Brightness and color of rapidly moving objects: The visual appearance of a large sphere revisited. http://www.spacetimetravel.org/sphere/sphere.html

A. Nowojewski, December 2005, Gamov's bicycle. http://cds.cern.ch/record/913692/files/0512054.pdf