Product Description
Suitable for a one-semester course in general relativity for senior undergraduates or beginning graduate students, this text clarifies the mathematical aspects of Einstein’s theory of relativity without sacrificing physical understanding. The text begins with an exposition of those aspects of tensor calculus and differential geometry needed for a proper treatment of the subject. The discussion then turns to the spacetime of general relativity and to geodesic motion… More >>
A Short Course in General Relativity
Tags: differential, differential geometry, einstein s theory of relativity, general relativity, graduate students, mathematical aspects, semester course, spacetime, theory of relativity, undergraduates
#1 by psalzman@landau.ucdavis.edu on July 2, 2010 - 10:47 pm
This is one gem of a book! It’s paced extremely well–the authors managed to write a book which is neither cryptic from lack of detail nor cumbersome with too much detail. It strikes me as the perfect self study book for a physics or mathematics student.
You won’t find the ramblings of ‘The Phone Book’, nor will you find the obfuscated discussions in Wald. If you like David Griffiths’ friendly and breezy writing style, you’ll love this book.
Don’t let its size fool you. While the book is short in pages, it manages to cover most of what Schutz’s book covers (another great book) and in many cases, does it better.
I’d say it’s suitable for a motivated junior undergraduate and is certainly suitable for a graduate student at any level.
It has my full recommendation.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Will on July 3, 2010 - 12:40 am
As a person who did postgrad physics and maths over 5 years ago and has been out of the field for way too long, I found that this was a great introduction to GR, a subject I never got to do at university. It introduces the maths (tensors, manifolds and geodesics) in the earlier chapters and relies heavily on them in the introduction to GR.
The book has great solutions, or at least very helpful hints, to the problems that are given throughout the book. Though at times I was stuck with some, it generally it required me to only look at the first step of the solution to be able to solve the problem.
This book is a quantitative approach, while “A First Course in General Relativity” (Schutz) is a more qualitative approach. I personally perfer the quantitative approach, and found this book better than Schutz. If you’re looking for a more verbose and wordy book, go for Schutz, while if you’re going for a mathematical approach (includes the derivation of the Schwarzchild’s solution and the rise of black holes coming from Schwarzchild’s solution) then this book is more for you.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on July 3, 2010 - 2:04 am
This book picks up with a brief refresher in
vector calculus and then proceeds to develop
the differential geometry needed to treat the
subject with fidelity. Interesting topics are
supplemented with useful excercises, all with
a minimum of wandering by the authors. This
book is probably appropriate for a 4th year
undergraduate or a 1st year graduate student
in mathematics or physics — excellent text for
individual study.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on July 3, 2010 - 3:41 am
If you are looking for a solid introduction to GR in under 250 pages, this is clearly the book for you. Its size can be deceiving, since it covers all the traditional background to GR, and does it well. The authors have managed to do this by introducing very few applications of GR. This, in my opinion, is a positive attribute, as it focuses on the actual machinery of relativity and gives a few basic applications (black holes, gravitational waves) that whet one’s appetite for more. Plus it includes numerous exercises with solutions. Overall a great little book.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Anonymous on July 3, 2010 - 5:17 am
The second edition of this book (which is what this is) is a terrible change for the worse. The first edition tried to introduce (the mathematics of) general relativity, in the “geodesics” method – i.e., taking the shortest route possible between two points, teaching you the mathematics and basic physical postulates and nothing more. But while the first edition used modern differential geometry, this volume has been entirely re-written in coordinates!!! This means you’ll be given the old definition of a tensor as a set of numbers that transform as … and thus taking away the book’s only merit, being a modern, quick, short introduction to the mathematics of GR. Sorry, but even if I wanted a sea of indices (which I don’t and no one else should) I could have picked up Weinberg’s book. Try Schutz’s book on general relativity instead.
Rating: 1 / 5