PHYS 414/823  Fall 2009

Introduction to General Relativity 

• General Information

• Course Notes

• Tutorials

• Assignments and Solutions

• Links

Announcements

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Instructor

    Larry Widrow
    Office: 308 F
    Phone: 533 6858
    Email: widrow "at" astro.queensu.ca


General Information

    General Information for 414 Students

    General Information for 823 Students

    Course Outline

Course Notes

    Lecture 1, Course Overview

    Lecture 2, Differential Geometry

    Lecture 3, Newtonian Gravity

    Lecture 432_A, Special Relativity

    Lecture 432_B, Lorentz Transformations

    Lecture 432_C, 4-vectors

    Lecture 4, A bit more on Special Relativity

    Lecture 5, 4-vectors with a bit more formalism

    Lecture 6, Equivalence Principle

    Lecture 7, Curved spacetime

    Lecture 8, Embedding diagrams/4-vectors

    Lecture 9, Lagrangian Mechanics

   

    Lecture 11, Schwarzschild geometry

    Lecture 12, Orbits in Schwarzschild

    Lecture 13, Photons in Schwarzschild

    Lecture 14, Solar System Tests

    Lecture 15, Gravitational Lensing

    Lecture 16, Accretion Disks

    Lecture 17, Black Holes I

    Lecture 18, Black Holes II

    Lecture 19, A little more math (Vectors etc.)

    Lecture 20, Tidal fields and curvature

    Lecture 21, Einstein in vacuum; Schwarzschild derived; gravitational waves

    Lecture 22, Stress-Energy-Momentum Tensor

    Lecture 23, Cosmology: Introduction

    Lecture 24, Cosmological Models

    Lecture 25, Observational Cosmology

   

Assignment and Solutions

Problems will be assigned in class and posted on the course website. Late assignments will be accepted on the following Monday with a 20% deduction though the penalty will be waived in exceptional circumstances and with prior approval of the instructor.

    Problem Set 1     Hartle, Problems 2.7, 2.10, 2.11     Due Friday, September 25     Solution

    Problem Set 2     Hartle, Problems 5.23, 6.6, 6.13     Due Friday, October 9     Solution

    Problem Set 3     Hartle, Problems 6.6, 6.13, 7.14     Due Friday, October 5         Solution

    Problem Set 4     Hartle, Problems 7.5, 8.4; 8.12 a,b,c     Due Tuesday, October 16         Solution ; 9.7

    Problem Set 5     Hartle, Problems 9.10, 9.11, 9.18     Due Friday, October 20         Solution    

    There is no problem set for week 6. You are encouraged to work through last year's midterm (see top of this web page)    

    Problem Set 6     Hartle, Problems 12.4, 12.14     Due Monday, November 6     Solution

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