Geometry, Fields and Cosmology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Geometrical Methods for Physics

   • N. Mukunda

   Pages 1-268

3. Problems on Geometrical Methods for Physics

   • Ravi Kulkarni

   Pages 269-288

4. Tetrads, the Newman-Penrose Formalism and Spinors

   • S. V. Dhurandhar

   Pages 289-330

5. Problems on Tetrads, the Newman-Penrose Formalism and Spinors

   • Sai Iyer

   Pages 331-350

6. Aspects of Quantum Field Theory

   • T. Padmanabhan

   Pages 351-446

7. Quantum Field Theory Methods: Dirac Equation and Perturbation Theory

   • Urjit Yajnik

   Pages 447-478

8. Relativistic Cosmology

   • J. V. Narlikar

   Pages 479-524

9. The Cosmological Constant: A Tutorial

   • Patrick Dasgupta

   Pages 525-548

10. Back Matter

    Pages 549-558

    PDF

This volume is based on the lectures given at the First Inter University Graduate School on Gravitation and Cosmology organized by IUCAA, Pune, in 1989. This series of Schools have been carefully planned to provide a sound background and preparation for students embarking on research in these and related topics. Consequently, the contents of these lectures have been meticulously selected and arranged. The topics in the present volume offer a firm mathematical foundation for a number of subjects to be de­ veloped later. These include Geometrical Methods for Physics, Quantum Field Theory Methods and Relativistic Cosmology. The style of the book is pedagogical and should appeal to students and research workers attempt­ ing to learn the modern techniques involved. A number of specially selected problems with hints and solutions have been included to assist the reader in achieving mastery of the topics. We decided to bring out this volume containing the lecture notes since we felt that they would be useful to a wider community of research workers, many of whom could not participate in the school. We thank all the lecturers for their meticulous lectures, the enthusiasm they brought to the discussions and for kindly writing up their lecture notes. It is a pleasure to thank G. Manjunatha for his meticulous assistence over a long period, in preparing this volume for publication.

• Cosmology
• Dirac equation
• Gravity
• Theoretical physics
• differential geometry

• Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India

  B. R. Iyer

• Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India

  C. V. Vishveshwara

Policies and ethics