General Relativity

Catalog description

Einstein’s principle of equivalence between physics in accelerating frames of reference and in local gravitational fields is the starting point; we demonstrate the relationship between the problem of getting rid of fictitious forces in accelerating frames by coordinate transformations and doing the same for gravitational forces. We then develop basic tensor algebra and calculus within the framework of special relativity, before introducing general coordinate transformations, the curvature tensor and the Einstein field equations. Tests and applications of the theory will include the effect on the GPS, the precession of the perihelion of Mercury, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, black holes and neutron stars, and the Friedmann equations describing the expansion of the universe.