PHYS 414/823  Fall 2010

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


Midterm Exam Information

The midterm will be on November 1 from 7-8:30. I've reserved both Room 261 and Room 201. (None of the 4th floor classrooms were available.) You will be provided with an equation sheet. You may bring a calculator.
   
2005 Midterm     Solutions 2007 Midterm     Solutions    
2010 Midterm    
2010 Midterm    
2011 Midterm Solutions    
2009 Final Exam from 2009    
Practice Problems from tutorials    
2010 Equation sheet for Final Exam    
2011 Equation sheet for Midterm Exam

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 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

    Special Tutorial on Lagrangian Mechanics

    Lecture 10, 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     Due Friday, September 30, 2011 -->

    Problem Set 2     Hartle, Problems 6.13, 7.14     Due Friday, October 7     Practice Problems: 5.23, 6.6

    Problem Set 3     Hartle, Problems 8.9, 8.12     Due Monday, October 17    

    Solutions to problem sets 1, 2, and 3

    Problem Set 4     Due Monday, October 24, 2011 4    Solution

    Problem Set 5     Hartle, Problems 9.11, 9.17     Due Monday, November 7, 2011         Solution Solution

    Problem Set 6     Hartle, Problems 12.4, 12.14     Due Monday, November 14     Solution

    Problem Set 7     Hartle, Problems 20.13, 20.15, 20.18     Due Monday, November 21     Solution

    Suggested Problems     Hartle, Problems 21.3, 21.18, 22.15, 22.12, 18.11, 18.20     Solution     Solution

Links