Beschreibung:
Ta-Pei Cheng is currently Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. He took his Ph.D. at Rockefeller University in 1969, followed by post-doctoral study at Rockefeller University and at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton). He has been on the faculty of University of Missouri - St. Louis from 1973 to the present day, and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1982.
This book provides an introduction to Einstein's general theory of relativity. A "physics-first" approach is adopted so that interesting applications come before the more difficult task of solving the Einstein equation. The book includes extensive coverage of cosmology, and is designed to allow readers to study the subject alone.
I: PRELIMINARIES; 1. Introduction and Overview; 2. Special relativity: the basics; II: RELATIVITY - METRIC DESCRIPTION OF SPACETIME; 3. Special relativity: the geometric formulation; 4. The principle of equivalence; 5. Metric description of a curved space; 6. GR as a geometric theory of gravity - I; 7. Spherically symmetric spacetime - GR tests; 8. Black holes; III: COSMOLOGY; 9. The homogeneous and isotropic universe; 10. The expanding universe and thermal relics; 11. Inflation and the accelerating universe; IV: RELATIVITY - FULL TENSOR FORMULATION; 12. Tensors in special relativity; 13. Tensors in general relativity; 14. GR as a geometric theory of gravity - II; 15. Linearized theory and gravitational waves