Introduction to General Relativity

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 1-27

3. Special Relativity

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 29-45

4. Relativistic Mechanics

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 47-66

5. Electromagnetism

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 67-84

6. Riemannian Geometry

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 85-105

7. General Relativity

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 107-122

8. Einstein’s Gravity

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 123-139

9. Schwarzschild Spacetime

   • Cosimo Bambi

   Pages 141-161

10. Classical Tests of General Relativity

    • Cosimo Bambi

    Pages 163-178

11. Black Holes

    • Cosimo Bambi

    Pages 179-204

12. Cosmological Models

    • Cosimo Bambi

    Pages 205-221

13. Gravitational Waves

    • Cosimo Bambi

    Pages 223-255

14. Beyond Einstein’s Gravity

    • Cosimo Bambi

    Pages 257-265

15. Correction to: Introduction to General Relativity

    • Cosimo Bambi

    Pages C1-C1

16. Back Matter

    Pages 267-335

    PDF

Following the approach of Lev Landau and Evgenii Lifshitz, this book introduces the theory of special and general relativity with the Lagrangian formalism and the principle of least action. This method allows the complete theory to be constructed starting from a small number of assumptions, and is the most natural approach in modern theoretical physics. The book begins by reviewing Newtonian mechanics and Newtonian gravity with the Lagrangian formalism and the principle of least action, and then moves to special and general relativity. Most calculations are presented step by step, as is done on the board in class. The book covers recent advances in gravitational wave astronomy and provides a general overview of current lines of research in gravity. It also includes numerous examples and problems in each chapter.

• Textbook special relativity
• Textbook general relativity
• Einstein’s gravity
• Schwarzschild solution
• Tests of general relativity
• Black holes
• Cosmological models
• Gravitational waves
• Undergraduate relativity textbook
• gravitational wave astronomy
• Least Action Principle
• Lagrangian formalism

• Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

  Cosimo Bambi

Cosimo Bambi is Xie Xide Junior Chair Professor at the Department of Physics at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and a Humboldt Fellow at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany). He received his PhD from Ferrara University (Italy) in 2007, and was a postdoc at Wayne State University (Michigan), IPMU at The University of Tokyo (Japan), and at LMU Munich (Germany). He moved to Fudan University at the end of 2012 under the Thousand Young Talents Program. In 2016, he was awarded with a JSPS fellowship to visit Japan. In 2018, he received the Xu Guangqi Award (for the best Italian researcher in China). He regularly serves as referee for journals like PRL, ApJ, JHEP, JCAP, etc. and as proposal reviewer for the Chang Jiang Scholars Program (China), Czech Science Foundation (Czech Republic), German Research Foundation (Germany), and National Research Foundation (South Africa). His research interests cover several areas in gravity, cosmology, and high-energy astrophysics. He has published more than 100 papers on refereed journals as first or corresponding author, has over 3,000 citations, and his h-index is 34. He has authored two books, and edited one volume (in ASSL) with Springer.

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