This book is an introduction to the theories of Special and General Relativity. The target audience are physicists, engineers and applied scientists who are looking for an understandable introduction to the topic - without too much new mathematics. The fundamental equations of Einstein's theory of Special and General Relativity are derived using matrix calculus, without the help of tensors. This feature makes the book special and a valuable tool for scientists and engineers with no experience in the field of tensor calculus. In part I the foundations of Special Relativity are developed, part II describes the structure and principle of General Relativity. Part III explains the Schwarzschild solution of spherical body gravity and examines the "Black Hole" phenomenon. Any necessary mathematical tools are user friendly provided, either directly in the text or in the appendices.
With this text, basic quantum mechanics becomes accessible to undergraduates with no background in mathematics beyond algebra. Includes more than 100 problems and 38 figures. 1986 edition.
Einstein Spaces presents the mathematical basis of the theory of gravitation and discusses the various spaces that form the basis of the theory of relativity. This book examines the contemporary development of the theory of relativity, leading to the study of such problems as gravitational radiation, the interaction of fields, and the behavior of elementary particles in a gravitational field. Organized into nine chapters, this book starts with an overview of the principles of the special theory of relativity, with emphasis on the mathematical aspects. This text then discusses the need for a general classification of all potential gravitational fields, and in particular, Einstein spaces. Other chapters consider the gravitational fields in empty space, such as in a region where the energy-momentum tensor is zero. The final chapter deals with the problem of the limiting conditions in integrating the gravitational field equations. Physicists and mathematicians will find this book useful.
This book presents a powerful way to study Einstein's special theory of relativity and its underlying hyperbolic geometry in which analogies with classical results form the right tool. It introduces the notion of vectors into analytic hyperbolic geometry, where they are called gyrovectors. Newtonian velocity addition is the common vector addition, which is both commutative and associative. The resulting vector spaces, in turn, form the algebraic setting for the standard model of Euclidean geometry. In full analogy, Einsteinian velocity addition is a gyrovector addition, which is both gyrocommutative and gyroassociative. The resulting gyrovector spaces, in turn, form the algebraic setting for the Beltrami–Klein ball model of the hyperbolic geometry of Bolyai and Lobachevsky. Similarly, Mצbius addition gives rise to gyrovector spaces that form the algebraic setting for the Poincarי ball model of hyperbolic geometry. In full analogy with classical results, the book presents a novel relativistic interpretation of stellar aberration in terms of relativistic gyrotrigonometry and gyrovector addition. Furthermore, the book presents, for the first time, the relativistic center of mass of an isolated system of noninteracting particles that coincided at some initial time t = 0. The novel relativistic resultant mass of the system, concentrated at the relativistic center of mass, dictates the validity of the dark matter and the dark energy that were introduced by cosmologists as ad hoc postulates to explain cosmological observations about missing gravitational force and late-time cosmic accelerated expansion. The discovery of the relativistic center of mass in this book thus demonstrates once again the usefulness of the study of Einstein's special theory of relativity in terms of its underlying analytic hyperbolic geometry.
Over the past years the author has developed a quantum language going beyond the concepts used by Bohr and Heisenberg. The simple formal algebraic language is designed to be consistent with quantum theory. It differs from natural languages in its epistemology, modal structure, logical connections, and copulatives. Starting from ideas of John von Neumann and in part also as a response to his fundamental work, the author bases his approach on what one really observes when studying quantum processes. This way the new language can be seen as a clue to a deeper understanding of the concepts of quantum physics, at the same time avoiding those paradoxes which arise when using natural languages. The work is organized didactically: The reader learns in fairly concrete form about the language and its structure as well as about its use for physics.
It is an ideal companion for courses such as mathematical methods of physics, classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and relativity.--Gary White, editor of The Physics Teacher "American Journal of Physics"
A straightforward, enjoyable guide to the mathematics of Einstein's relativity To really understand Einstein's theory of relativity – one of the cornerstones of modern physics – you have to get to grips with the underlying mathematics. This self-study guide is aimed at the general reader who is motivated to tackle that not insignificant challenge. With a user-friendly style, clear step-by-step mathematical derivations, many fully solved problems and numerous diagrams, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to a fascinating but complex subject. For those with minimal mathematical background, the first chapter gives a crash course in foundation mathematics. The reader is then taken gently by the hand and guided through a wide range of fundamental topics, including Newtonian mechanics; the Lorentz transformations; tensor calculus; the Einstein field equations; the Schwarzschild solution (which gives a good approximation of the spacetime of our Solar System); simple black holes, relativistic cosmology and gravitational waves. Special relativity helps explain a huge range of non-gravitational physical phenomena and has some strangely counter-intuitive consequences. These include time dilation, length contraction, the relativity of simultaneity, mass-energy equivalence and an absolute speed limit. General relativity, the leading theory of gravity, is at the heart of our understanding of cosmology and black holes. "I must observe that the theory of relativity resembles a building consisting of two separate stories, the special theory and the general theory. The special theory, on which the general theory rests, applies to all physical phenomena with the exception of gravitation; the general theory provides the law of gravitation and its relations tothe other forces of nature." – Albert Einstein, 1919 Understand even the basics of Einstein's amazing theory and the world will never seem the same again. Contents: Preface Introduction 1 Foundation mathematics 2 Newtonian mechanics 3 Special relativity 4 Introducing the manifold 5 Scalars, vectors, one-forms and tensors 6 More on curvature 7 General relativity 8 The Newtonian limit 9 The Schwarzschild metric 10 Schwarzschild black holes 11 Cosmology 12 Gravitational waves Appendix: The Riemann curvature tensor Bibliography Acknowledgements January 2019. This third edition has been revised to make the material even more accessible to the enthusiastic general reader who seeks to understand the mathematics of relativity.
Intended for college-level physics, engineering, or mathematics students, this volume offers an algebraically based approach to various topics in applied math. It is accessible to undergraduates with a good course in calculus which includes infinite series and uniform convergence. Exercises follow each chapter to test the student's grasp of the material; however, the author has also included exercises that extend the results to new situations and lay the groundwork for new concepts to be introduced later. A list of references for further reading will be found at the end of each chapter. For this second revised edition, Professor Dettman included a new section on generalized functions to help explain the use of the Dirac delta function in connection with Green's functions. In addition, a new approach to series solutions of ordinary differential equations has made the treatment independent of complex variable theory. This means that the first six chapters can be grasped without prior knowledge of complex variables. However, since Chapter 8 depends heavily on analytic functions of a complex variable, a new Chapter 7 on analytic function theory has been written.
This book unfolds the subject of Relativity for undergraduate students of physics. It fills a gap between introductory descriptions and texts for researchers. Assuming almost no prior knowledge, it allows the student to handle all the Relativity needed for a university course, with explanations as simple, thorough, and engaging as possible.
For readers of Sean Carroll, Brian Greene, Katie Mack, and anyone who wants to know what theoretical physicists actually do. This Way to the Universe is a celebration of the astounding, ongoing scientific investigations that have revealed the nature of reality at its smallest, at its largest, and at the scale of our daily lives. The enigmas that Professor Michael Dine discusses are like landmarks on a fantastic journey to the edge of the universe. Asked where to find out about the Big Bang, Dark Matter, the Higgs boson particle—the long cutting edge of physics right now—Dine had no single book he could recommend. This is his accessible, authoritative, and up-to-date answer. Comprehensible to anyone with a high-school level education, with almost no equations, there is no better author to take you on this amazing odyssey. Dine is widely recognized as having made profound contributions to our understanding of matter, time, the Big Bang, and even what might have come before it. This Way to the Universe touches on many emotional, critical points in his extraordinary carreer while presenting mind-bending physics like his answer to the Dark Matter and Dark Energy mysteries as well as the ideas that explain why our universe consists of something rather than nothing. People assume String Theory can never be tested, but Dine intrepidly explores exactly how the theory might be tested experimentally, as well as the pitfalls of falling in love with math. This book reflects a lifetime pursuing the deepest mysteries of reality, by one of the most humble and warmly engaging voices you will ever read.
