Description
Clarity, readability and rigor combine in the second edition of this widely-used textbook to provide the first step into general relativity for undergraduate students with a minimal background in mathematics. Topics within relativity that fascinate astrophysical researchers and students alike are covered with Schutz’s characteristic ease and authority – from black holes to gravitational lenses, from pulsars to the study of the Universe as a whole. This edition now contains discoveries by astronomers that require general relativity for their explanation; a revised chapter on relativistic stars, including new information on pulsars; an entirely rewritten chapter on cosmology; and an extended, comprehensive treatment of modern detectors and expected sources. Over 300 exercises, many new to this edition, give students the confidence to work with general relativity and the necessary mathematics, whilst the informal writing style makes the subject matter easily accessible. Selected solutions for instructors are available under Resources.
- Provides the first step into general relativity for undergraduate students with a minimal background in mathematics
- Over 300 exercises, many new to this edition, with password protected solutions available at www.cambridge.org/9780521887052
- New material includes recent discoveries by astronomers as well as updates on what is currently known about pulsars, modern detectors of gravitational waves, black holes, acceleration of the universe and more
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Fundamental principles of special relativity
2. Vector analysis in special relativity
3. Tensor analysis in special relativity
4. Perfect fluids in special relativity
5. Preface to curvature
6. Curved manifolds
7. Physics in a curved spacetime
8. The Einstein field equations
9. Gravitational radiation
10. Spherical solutions for stars
11. Schwarzschild geometry and black holes
12. Cosmology
References
Index
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