Course: PHZ 6607, Special and General Relativity, Class Hours: MWF Period 10, NPB 1216
Instructor: J. N. Fry, Office: 2172, Phone: 392-6692, e-mail fry#phys.ufl.edu, Office Hours: MWF 3:00–4:00   [Schedule]
Grader: Luyi Yan, Office: 1133, Phone: 273-4643, e-mail: yan88130[at]ufl.edu, Office Hour: TBA

Course Description:
PHZ 6607 is the first semester of the introduction to relativity.. Outline of topics to be covered and approximate order includes:

• Special relativity
  • Lorentz transformations, tensors, invariants
  • kinematics and dynamics
  • covariant physics: electromagnetism, hydrodynamics, stress-energy-momentum
  • relativistic (classical) field theory
• Riemannian geometry
  • spacetime metric, covariant derivatives, parallel transport, geodesics
  • differential forms, exterior derivative, Lie derivative
  • curvature: Riemann, Ricci, Einstein
  • Killing vectors and symmetries
• General relativity
  • Einstein field equations
  • linearized theory, gauge transformations, Newtonian limit
  • physics in curved spacetime
  • some exact solutions – Schwarzchild geometry, Robertson-Walker cosmology
• Specialized Topics
  • black holes: Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordström, Kerr [-Newman]
  • gravitational waves
  • experimental tests
  • relativistic astrophysics
  • black hole thermodynamics, Hawking radiation
  • cosmology

Grading:
Grades will be based on periodic homework sets, two of which will be dignified as a take-home midterm [solution] [distribution] and final exam, due 6:00pm, Tuesday, December 13. [solution] [distribution]

Text:

• Sean Carroll, Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity (Addison-Wesley, 2003). ("My book has its own web page.")
  Online Lecture Notes on General Relativity.   Preposterous Universe   @seanmcarroll

Other useful books:

• Edwin F. Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler, Spacetime Physics (W. H. Freeman, 1966).
• Bernard F. Schutz [AEI/ Cardiff] A first course in general relativity (Cambridge University Press, 1990). w/ Solutions to some problems
• James B. Hartle, Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity (Addison-Wesley, 2003). [errata[

• Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, and John A. Wheeler, Gravitation (W. H. Freeman, 1973).
• Steven Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology (Wiley, 1972, 2008/9?).
• Robert M. Wald, General Relativity (Univ. of Chicago, 1984).
• S. W. Hawking [DAMTP] and G. F. R. Ellis, The large scale structure of space-time (Cambridge University Press, 1973).
• Clifford M. Will, Theory and experiment in gravitational physics, revised edition (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
  Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment (2014) [arXiv] (2006)
  Testing General Relativity with Present and Future Astrophysical Observations (2015)
• Eric Poisson, A Relativist's Toolkit: The Mathematics of Black-Hole Mechanics (Cambridge Univ, 2004).
• E. Poisson and C. M. Will, Gravity: Newtonian, post-Newtonian, Relativistic (Cambridge Univ, 2014).
• P. A. M. Dirac, General Theory of Relativity [1975] (Princeton University Press, 1996).
• Richard P. Feynman, Lectures on Gravitation (Addison Wesley Longman, 1995).
• L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields (Pergamon Press, 1975).
• Davison E. Soper, Classical Field Theory (Wiley, 1976).

• Wolfgang Rindler, Essential Relativity, Second Edition (Springer-Verlag, 1969, 1977).
  ——, Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological (Oxford University Press, 2006).
• I. R. Kenyon, General Relativity (Oxford University Press, 1990).
• Ray D'Inverno, Introducing Einstein's Relativity (Oxford University Press, 1992).
• Malcolm Lidvigsen, General Relativity: A Geometric Approach, (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
• Norbert Straumann, General Relativity, With Applications to Astrophysics (Springer, 2004).

• N. D. Birrell and P. C. W. Davies, Quantum Fields in Curved Space (Cambridge, 1982).

• Sidney Coleman, Aspects of Symmetry (Cambridge, 1985). Quantum Field Theory lectures
• Howard Georgi, Lie Algebras in Particle Physics (Westview, 1999).
• Robert Hermann, Lie Groups for Physicists (Benjamin, 1966).

Are There Any Good Books on Relativity Theory?
How many people understand Einstein's theory? (I think it says "12 men")

Links:

Albert Einstein Online
Official Albert Einstein Facebook Page   R_ik = 0 [the atlantic] [cbs]
Tübingen at nearly the speed of light, home, color and brightness
Ed Bertschinger's Relativity Notes
Andrew Hamilton's Relativity and Black Hole Links
John Baez's Relativity Tutorial
Albert Stebbins's Gravitational Lensing of Wilson Hall
xkcd astr, mond rotation curves
Jim Peebles! cnn princeton nobel telescoper
SC: "It is not an exaggeration to say that modern cosmology consists largely of a series of footnotes to Peebles."
PJEP: "My advice to young people entering science: you should do it for the love of science ... You should enter science because you are fascinated by it."

Generators of Lorentz transformations
Twin paradox
Constant Acceleration
2017 Lamborghini Adventador S, 2017 Centenario LP 770-4, 2011 Sesto Elemento [(88 ft/sec) / (2.7 sec) = 32.6 ft/sec², (88 ft/sec) / (2.4 sec) = 36.6 ft/sec²]
spacetime trajectories
Hairy Ball Theorem
Bending of light by the sun, Gravitational Lensing Jonathan Pritchard, CfA
Effective radial potential [L²/M² = 10, 11, ..., 20], photon effective potential [L²/M² = 10, 20, ..., 100],
UCLA Galactic Center Group OJ287 arXiv paper
Incompressible OV Star: M/R = 1/5, M/R = 3/8, M/R = 3/7 [p(r), g_tt(r), g_rr(r)]   M-R (γ=5/3), Neutron star M-R relation
Infall in proper time τ(r), coordinate time t(r)
The Black Hole
On the Means of Discovering the Distance, Magnitude, &c. of the Fixed Stars, in Consequence of the Diminution of the Velocity of Their Light, in Case Such a Diminution Should be Found to Take Place in any of Them, and Such Other Data Should be Procured from Observations, as Would be Farther Necessary for That Purpose. By the Rev. John Michell, B. D. F. R. S. In a Letter to Henry Cavendish, Esq. F. R. S. and A. S., Phil. Trans. LXXIV (1784), pp.35–57.  SLD on the Rev. John Michell.
conformal Minkowski
RN effective potential (Q = 0.9 M)
AJSH Journey into a black hole, explanations
GPS notes Mathematica notebook

Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 Eclipse, Peter Coles, arXiv:astro-ph/0102462.
Measurement of the Solar Gravitational Deflection of Radio Waves using Geodetic Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry Data, 1979–1999, S.S. Shapiro et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 121101 (2004).
A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft, B. Bertotti, L. Iess, P. Tortora, Nature, 425, 374–376 (2003).
Observations of Post-Newtonian Timing Effects in the Binary Pulsar PSR 1913+16, J.M. Weisberg and J.H. Taylor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 15, 1348 (1984).
Stellar Orbits around the Galactic Center Black Hole, A.M. Ghez et al., Astrophys. J. Lett. 620, 744 (2004).
Masses, Radii, and the Equation of State of Neutron Stars, F. Ozel and P. Freire, Ann. Rev. Astr. Ap. 54, 401 (2016).
Energy Momentum Pseudo-Tensor of Relic Gravitational Wave in Expanding Universe, D. Su and Y. Zhang, Phys. Rev. D 85 104012 (2012).
Observation of quantum Hawking radiation and its entanglement in an analogue black hole, J. Steinhauer, Nature Phys. 12 959 (2016).

Class Diary

Zoom

Introduction to Cosmology Videos

Homework:

1. Homework 1. Due Friday September 2. Solution
2. Homework 2. Due Friday September 9. Solution
3. Homework 3. Due Friday September 23. Solution
4. Homework 4. Due Friday October 7. Solution
5. Homework 5. Due Friday October 14. Solution
6. Homework 6. Due Friday November 4. Solution
7. Homework 7. Due Friday November 18. Solution

   Midterm Exam. Due 6:00pm, Friday October 21. Solution
   Final Exam. Due 6:00pm, Tuesday, December 13. Solution

University Policies: Students are expected to know and comply with the University's policies regarding academic honesty and use of copyrighted materials. Cheating, plagiarism, or other violations of the Academic Honesty Guidelines will not be tolerated and will be pursued through the University's adjudication procedures.
  “Students requesting classroom accommodations must first register with the Disabilities Resources Program, located in the Dean of Students Office, P202 Peabody Hall. The Disabilities Resources Program will provide documentation to the student, who must then deliver this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodations.”