Relativity Made Relatively Easy Pack, Volumes 1 and 2 (Paperback)

Description

This two-volume book is a comprehensive, detailed account of the physics of relativity. While Vol. 1 is an introductory guide to the basics of relativity, Vol. 2 aims to give a working understanding of astronomy and gravitational waves, as well as outlining the key concepts in cosmology and classical field theory.

• Two-volume pack offering a thorough treatment suitable for any undergraduate course on relativity, including chapters on gravitational waves and dark holes
• Provides clear explanations designed to work for self-study
• Features a large number of processes and results derived in full
• Includes plenty of diagrams, end of chapter exercises, and tutorial inserts to aid comprehension
• Includes profound insights into many wonderful physical phenomena

About the Author(s)

Andrew Steane, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford

Andrew Steane is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. He has conducted experimental and theoretical research into the foundations of physics and has performed pioneering quantum experiments with ultra-cold atomic clouds, as well as establishing the ion trap quantum computing program at Oxford. Professor Steane discovered quantum error correction and the CSS (Calderbank Shor Steane) codes and he is a recipient of the Maxwell Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics, and the Trotter Prize of Texas A&M University. He regularly lectures on relativity and other areas of physics and has published two undergraduate physics textbooks and two books on science and religion with Oxford University Press.

Table of Contents

Volume 1
Part I: The Relativistic World
1:Basic ideas
2:The Lorentz transformation
3:Moving light sources
4:Dynamics
5:The conservation of energy-momentum
6:Further kinematics
7:Relativity and electromagnetism
8:Electromagnetic radiation
Part II: An Introduction to General Relativity
9:The Principle of equivalence
10:Warped spacetime
11:Physics from the metric
Part III: Further Special Relativity
12:Tensors and index notation
13:Rediscovering electromagnetism
14:Lagrangian mechanics
15:Angular momentum
16:Energy density
17:What is spacetime?
Volume 2: General Relativity and Cosmology
1:Preface
2:Terminology and notation
3:The elements of general relativity
4:An introductory example: the uniform static field
5:Life in a rotating world
6:Linearized general relativity
7:Slow stationary sources
8:Gravitational waves
9:Manifolds
10:Vectors on manifolds
11:The affine connection
12:Further useful ideas
13:Tensors
14:Parallel transport and geodesics
15:Physics in curved spacetime
16:Curvature
17:The Einstein field equation
18:Schwarzschild-Droste solution
19:Further spherically symmetric solutions
20:Rotating bodies; the Kerr metric
21:Black holes
22:Black hole thermodynamics
23:Cosmology
24:Cosmological dynamics
25:The growth of structure
26:Observational cosmology
27:The very early universe
28:First steps in classical field theory
29:Lagrangian mechanics for fields
30:Conclusion