Course Identification

General relativity
20191031

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Prof. Ulf Leonhardt
Dr. Adar Sharon

Course Schedule and Location

2019
First Semester
Sunday, 14:15 - 16:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm A
Tuesday, 11:15 - 13:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm A

Tutorials
Wednesday, 16:15 - 18:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm A
06/11/2018

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Physical Sciences: Lecture; Elective; Regular; 5.00 points
Chemical Sciences: Lecture; Elective; 5.00 points

Comments

Additional (make-up) lectures:
December: 3, 10, 17, 31, 09:15-11:00, seminar room A

Prerequisites

Special relativity, Lagrangian mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics

Restrictions

30

Language of Instruction

English

Attendance and participation

Required in at least 80% of the lectures

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

50%
50%

Evaluation Type

Take-home exam

Scheduled date 1

N/A
N/A
-
Take-home exam: 10th February, to be returned 17th February at the latest.

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

12

Syllabus

  1. The equivalence principle and the principle of general covariance.
  2. Curved manifolds (spaces): metric, connection, parallel transport, curvature, etc.
  3. Physics in curved space-time: particle dynamics, electromagnetism, hydrodynamics, etc.
  4. The Einstein equation. Solutions: Black holes, gravitational waves, cosmology, etc.
  5. The quantum vacuum, Unruh and Hawking radiation.
  6. Analogues of gravity and their applications.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

Demonstrate good proficiency in the mathematics of curved manifolds, the physics in curved space-time (how "space tells matter how to move") and the physics of curved space time (how "matter tells space how to curve".

Reading List

Landau and Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields
Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, Gravitation

Website

N/A