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General Relativity
This course will introduce the foundations of general relativity and Einstein's theory of gravitational interactions with applications.Course outline:Physical overview; special relativity (a brief overview); equivalence principle; Riemannian differential geometry (a major chunk of the course); Einstein's equations; weak-field limit of G.R.; variational principle in curved spacetimes; symmetry principles - Killing vectors; spherical symmetry (Schwarzschild solution); classical tests of G.R. (deflection of light, planetary orbits etc)
Subject to approval of the Head of Department.
David Wiltshire
Carroll, Sean M; Spacetime and geometry : an introduction to general relativity ; Addison Wesley, 2004.
D'Inverno, Ray; Introducing Einstein's relativity ; Clarendon Press ;, 1992.
Hartle, J. B; Gravity : an introduction to Einstein's general relativity ; Addison-Wesley, 2003.
Useful references:General relativity at a basic level:B F Schutz, A first course in general relativity (Cambridge University Press, 1985)J Foster and J D Nightingale, A short course in general relativity, 2nd ed., (Longman, London 1995)H C Ohanian and R Ruffini, Gravitation and spacetime, 2nd ed. (W W Norton and Co., New York, 1994)H Stephani, General relativity (Cambridge University Press, 1982)General relativity with greater depth / more topics:R M Wald, General relativity (University of Chicago press, 1984)S W Hawking and G F R Ellis, The large scale structure of spacetime (Cambridge University Press, 1972)C W Misner, K S Thorne and J A Wheeler, Gravitation (W H Freeman, San Francisco, 1973)S Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and applications of the general theory of relativity (Wiley, New York, 1972)Related topics:B F Schutz, Geometrical methods of mathematical phyiscs (Cambridge University Press, 1980)N A Doughty, Lagrangian interaction: An introduction to relativistic symmetry in electrodynamics and graviation (Addison Wesley, Sydney, 1990)
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Domestic fee $765.00
International Postgraduate fees
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Physics and Astronomy .