A Mathematical Journey to Relativity

Deriving Special and General Relativity with Basic Mathematics

Authors: Wladimir-Georges Boskoff & Salvatore Capozziello  
Series: UNITEXT for Physics 
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 
ISBN: 978-3-030-47893-3 (print) 978-3-030-47894-0 (eBook) 
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-47894-0 

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030478933

This book opens with an axiomatic description of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries. Euclidean geometry is the starting point to understand all other geometries and it is  the cornerstone for our basic intuition of vector spaces. The generalization to non-Euclidean geometry is the following step to develop the language of Special and General Relativity. 

These theories are discussed starting from a full geometric point of view. Differential geometry is presented in the simplest  way and it is applied to describe the physical world. The final result of this construction is deriving the Einstein field equations for gravitation and spacetime dynamics. Possible solutions, and their physical implications are also discussed: the Schwarzschild metric, the relativistic trajectory of planets, the deflection of light, the black holes, the cosmological solutions like de Sitter, Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker, and Gödel ones. Some current problems like dark energy are also scketched. The book is self-contained and includes details of all proofs. It provides solutions  or tips to  solve problems and exercises. It is designed for undergraduate students and for all readers who want a first geometric approach to Special and General Relativity.