General Relativity (eBook)

This book offers an alternative to other textbooks on the subject, providing a more specific discussion of numerous general relativistic effects for readers who have knowledge of classical mechanics and electrodynamics, including special relativity. Coverage includes in particular gravitational lensing, signal retardation in the gravitational field of the Sun, the Reissner-Nordström solution, selected spin effects, the resonance transformation of an electromagnetic wave into a gravitational one, and the entropy and temperature of black holes. The book includes numerous problems at various levels of difficulty, making it ideal also for independent study by a broad readership of advanced students and researchers. I.B. Khriplovich is Chief Researcher, Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Novosibirsk, and Chair of Theoretical Physics at Novosibirsk University. Dr. Khriplovich is a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has been awarded the Dirac Medal ``For the advancement of theoretical physics'' by University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and the Pomeranchuk Prize ``For outstanding contribution to the understanding the properties of the standard model, especially for illuminating work on weak and strong interactions of quarks'' by the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia.

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The book is based on the course on general relativity given regularly at the Physics Department of Novosibirsk University. The course, lasting for one semester, consists of 32 hours of lectures and 32 hours of tutorials, plus ho- work of 10 - 12 problems. The exam is passed by 30 - 35 students. The results of the homework and exam give good reasons to believe that at least 20 - 25 of these students really digest the subject. The course requires of students the knowledge of analytical mechanics and classical electrodynamics, including special relativity. Only chapters 7 and 10 of the book are in this respect exceptions: the acquaintance with the notion of spin is useful for studying chapter 7, the fundamentals of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics are necessary for the last chapter. But these parts of thebookcanbeskippedwithoutanylossforunderstandingallotherchapters. The book (as well as the course itself) is in?uenced essentially by the monographbyL.D.LandauandE.M.Lifshitz,TheClassicalTheoryofFields, (Butterworth - Heinemann, 1975). However, I strived to make the exposition as close as possible to a common university course of physics, to make it accessible not only for theorists.