General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists 1st Edition by M. P. Hobson (PDF)

Description

General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists provides a clear mathematical introduction to Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It presents a wide range of applications of the theory, concentrating on its physical consequences. After reviewing the basic concepts, the authors present a clear and intuitive discussion of the mathematical background, including the necessary tools of tensor calculus and differential geometry. These tools are then used to develop the topic of special relativity and to discuss electromagnetism in Minkowski spacetime. Gravitation as spacetime curvature is then introduced and the field equations of general relativity derived. After applying the theory to a wide range of physical situations, the book concludes with a brief discussion of classical field theory and the derivation of general relativity from a variational principle. Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this approachable textbook contains over 300 exercises to illuminate and extend the discussion in the text.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐While looking for a book to teach my undergraduates I was lucky to obtain a copy of this book.I was ready to implement the Nightingale/Foster , but I was disappointed to see the degradation of its second edition. I learned GR with the first edition of N/F!!!.Well , I checked this excellent book and I was amazed.In the first chapters the authors expose Vectors tensors and manifold in the easier possible way. Then they revise Special Relativity . Then , they proceed as usual , Curved spaces , Einstein’s Field Equation , Scwh-Metric, Schw -Black Holes , Interior solutions, but , then : Kerr solution in great detail!!. Without going into Ehler’s equations or Degenerated Algebras , the authors describe very well Kerr’s Geometry and Physics ( Penrose’s , Celestial Mechanics..etc).Cosmology ( FLW) solutions ,..Inflation in some extent!!..Linearization and Gravitational Waves (Production and detection) .At the very end there is the Hilbert action etc.I wish some Kaluza/Klein , which is possible and necessary for the new generation ( to understand completely String Theory you need to taste KK- theory ) and also , I wish a given amount of solution for the large number of problems at the end of every chapter.I hope to see both of these in future versions of this magnificent introductory book and then I will give the 5-star.

⭐For someone wanting to get into the real workings of general relativity with only a background of multivariable and vector calculus, this is a perfect book. It’s easy to read with a great method of introducing the material by showing you how to use it, then deriving it, which allows you to know the importance of why you are deriving it. Problems at the end of each chapter. The only problem is finding the solutions, which can be found by searching for courses that are using the textbook, and happen to post homework solutions.

⭐I have read parts of many books on general relativity and cosmology and I have to say that when looking for a refresher on a concept, I always turn to this book first. It might be because I first learned much of general relativity from this book, but I think the explanations are clear and the authors don’t get bogged down in details. This makes the book a great starting point for new students.That said, there are a lot of typos in the book. There is one and half pages of corrections in the back of the book, and the notation that is used is sometimes a bit strange (power spectrum, etc.) For me, I am more concerned about the concept and the intuition so these hiccups don’t bother me too much.Bottom line: for those who want to learn GR as fast as possible using only high school calculus read Exploring Black Holes by Taylor and Wheeler. For those who want all the details and multiple perspectives on GR, read Gravitation by misner thorne wheeler. Bridging the gap is this book.

⭐I have this book along with the classic by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. Both are good, but I like the explanations in this book better. I think it benefits from being published in 2006. Physicists have learned how to explain General Relativity better. Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler is 3 times thicker and covers more topics, but this is actually a distraction from learning the subject for the first time.Another advantage of being published in 2006 is that the quality of presentation has improved.I recommend the book.

⭐A well written presentation of a difficult subject. However, this is not for the beginner. You must have a good command of Calculus and analytic geometry in order to understand this material, but the authors do an excellent job of presenting it in a logical and accessible manner.I particular like the way the authors have broken the material into digestible bits makes this the best presentation of the material have seen – and I have a PH.D in Astronomy.

⭐I can see why many other reviewers of this book like it: It is a good review of GR. But for me as newcomer to the subject, it was not helpful in learning the subject. First of all, you will not learn tensor calculus; learn it from other books or you will be mystified. Second, many topics like Christoffel Symbols or covariant derivatives are not clearly explained but just presented in formulas. Third, many variables such as the curvature constant K are not defined and just shows up in formulas. Fortunately I was able to find videos on YouTube that painstakingly explained them. And then it made sense when I went back to the book. But it skips a lot of details in the derivation of formulas, using statements such as “It can be easily shown that …” or “From the Bianchi Identity, we have …” Only after getting an understanding from other sources, I can see what the author is doing: “Oh, he raised the index of the tensor R after multiplying by the metric g, but since R=0, it is the same.” Before, it seemed the index was just arbitrarily raised. So you’re just left with a lot “Oh, uh huh, uh huh” without really getting an understanding of how the equations got to their final forms.

⭐Bought for my son. He loved it.

⭐If you a complete newbie in GR, read Ta Pei Cheng’s book.After that, get this book and Sean Carroll’s book to learn GR the proper way. When you are frustrated with the skipping of steps in Sean Carroll’s book, refer to Hobson‘s book. You can almost always find the omitted steps in Hobson’s book.And then you can tackle Robert Wald’s great GR text.

⭐A superb book. Everything is explained in the order required to get a full understanding of the extraordinary complexity of Einstein’s theory of gravity. All of the relevant maths is reviewed before being used. It builds almost like a tense novel to reach the climax of the field equations of general relativity. The applications of the theory – black holes, cosmology etc are then covered in detail. Compared to other texts that I have worked through in the same genre I think that I can safely say that this is the best yet. Thoroughly recommended.

⭐I’m studying GR for the second time and have now got several books on the subject. This is so far easily the best. It’s certainly more rigorous than many student introductions, but is very methodical – deriving all the key results in a careful stepwise fashion. It’s definitely an easier read than Shultz or Wald or Misner, Thorn and Wheeler.. but not less rigorous. Ideal for a Undergrad GR course and Masters /PhD reference book.

⭐As someone to got a smattering of tensor calculus, differential geometry and General relativity at university (many years ago), it was great to refresh (and expand) my knowledge of the basics with this clearly written exposition of GR.The explanation of manifolds and the concepts of covariant and contravariant tensors/vectors relies as much as possible on intuitive description while not sacrificing too much mathematical rigor. The book moves smoothly to more advanced topics (Lagrangian formulations, Kerr metrics, Schwarzschild solutions) and the reader comes to understand some of the reasons why the ultimate fate of the universe is still an open question…

⭐Before this book I read a few introductory books on this subject, without really grasping the core of general relativity.It has to be pointed out that general relativity cannot be fully appreciated without a good undestanding of the mathematics involved. Thanks to the first part of the book – which is a concise but illuminating introduction to differential geometry, tensor algebra on so on – the reader can really handle the required mathematical tools. For instance, contravariant and covariant components are magnificently explained, as well as the concept of tensor (abstract mathematical entity whose nature does not depend on the local coordinate frame, whereas whose representation does strongly depend on it).The rest of the book is a superb and outstanding presentation of classical and recent applications of general relativity to astrophysics and cosmology.In short, I really recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this subject. I would strongly suggest not to waste time with other references before having read this.

⭐Great introduction to the subject with sufficient mathematical rigor, especially on some of the more complicated proofs. However some of the mathematical reasoning assumes prior knowledge and so skipped—better if these are provided in answers to the exercises or web-based references of proofs are shown. I had to look up proofs in other books.Quite a lot of algebra skipped in the derivations in the chapter on variational methods, especially on omitted second order terms, which I find rather difficult to follow with quite a lot of guessing.

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