An Introduction to General Relativity and Cosmology
An Introduction to General Relativity and Cosmology
Andrzej Krasinski, Polish Academy of Sciences
General relativity is a cornerstone of modern physics, and is of major importance in its applications to cosmology. Plebanski and Krasinski are experts in the field and provide a thorough introduction to general relativity, guiding the reader through complete derivations of the most important results. Providing coverage from a unique viewpoint, geometrical, physical and astrophysical properties of inhomogeneous cosmological models are all systematically and clearly presented, allowing the reader to follow and verify all derivations. Many topics are included that are not found in other textbooks.
- A self-contained account of cosmology in general geometry
- Contains exercises, with hints but no solutions
- No other textbook published previously had devoted so much attention to cosmology described by exact methods of relativity
- The first ever presentation in textbook form of significant papers written in the 70s and 80s
Reviews & endorsements
...an excellent high-level textbook that includes a number of topics that are not to be readily found elsewhere. I recommend it very highly for students who have studied General Relativity already... and who would like to gain a deeper mathematical insight into the subject.
Alan Heavens, The Observatory
"... A fairly comprehensive treatise in the field of relativity and cosmology. It covers topics seldom or never seen in textbooks of this kind and is therefore valuable for researchers."
Sigbjorn Hervik, Mathematical Reviews
"... an impressive and coherent account of many aspects of contemporary General Relativity theory."
Contemporary Physics
Product details
September 2012Paperback
9781107407367
558 pages
244 × 170 × 29 mm
0.88kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. How the theory of relativity came into being (a brief historical sketch)
- Part I. Elements of Differential Geometry:
- 2. A short sketch of two-dimensional differential geometries
- 3. Tensors, tensor densities
- 4. Covariant derivatives
- 5. Parallel transport and geodesic lines
- 6. Curvature of a manifold: flat manifolds
- 7. Riemannian geometry
- 8. Symmetries of Rieman spaces, invariance of tensors
- 9. Methods to calculate the curvature quickly - Cartan forms and algebraic computer programs
- 10. The spatially homogeneous Bianchi-type spacetimes
- 11. The Petrov classification by the spinor method
- Part II. The Gravitation Theory:
- 12. The Einstein equations and the sources of a gravitational field
- 13. The Maxwell and Einstein-Maxwell equations and the Kaluza-Klein theory
- 14. Spherically symmetric gravitational field of isolated objects
- 15. Relativistic hydrodynamics and thermodynamics
- 16. Relativistic cosmology I: general geometry
- 17. Relativistic cosmology II: the Robertson-Walker geometry
- 18. Relativistic cosmology III: the Lemaître-Tolman geometry
- 19. Relativistic cosmology IV: generalisations of L-T and related geometries
- 20. The Kerr solution
- 21. Subjects omitted in this book
- References.
