Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological 2nd Edition by Wolfgang Rindler (PDF)

Description

Relativistic cosmology has in recent years become one of the most active and exciting branches of research, often considered to be today where particle physics was forty years ago, with major discoveries just waiting to happen. Consequently the part most affected by this second edition is the last part on cosmology. But there are additions, improvements, and new exercises throughout. _ The book’s basic purposeis unchanged. It is to make relativity come alive conceptually, and to display the grand theoretical edifice that it is, with consequences in many branches of physics. The emphasis is on the foundations, on the logical subtleties, and on presenting the necessary mathematics – including differentialgeometry and tensors – but always as late and in as palatable a form as possible. Aided by over 300 exercises, the book seeks to promote an in-depth understanding, and the confidence to tackle any basic problem in relativity.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐This book is an update of the author’s previous work “Essential Relativity,” although the former book remains available through another publisher. “Essential Relativity” contains interesting (to me) material that had to be omitted from the new volume. The new volume contains necessary updates. The author is a world class scholar, and he gives a very comprehensive introduction to relativity, both special and general. Consequently, every serious student will be forced to purchase this book and study it thoroughly and quite carefully.As churlish as it may sound, I expect more from a world class scholar, teamed with one of the top technical publishers in the world. Rindler really begins the technical discussion in section 2.7, which is a modest edit of a section from his previous book “Introduction to Special Relativity.” In it, he considers a free particle whose trajectory is parameterized by its own particular clock, mu. He then considers the coordinates of two separate inertial references frames. By differentiating by mu, he is able to show that the coordinates of inertial systems have to be linearly related. A page or two later, he has derived the whole Lorentz transformation in quite a lot of detail (not perfect detail). On finding the “truth,” we then see that different observers see time sources quite differently. This is not obviously consistent with the original differentiation. For beginning classes, at least, this is at least an unnecessary source of potential confusion. Compare and contrast this ponderous progression with the smooth and economical set up for the Lorentz Transformation that is to be found in the first chapter of Landau and Lifschitz’s “Classical Theory of FIelds.” It seems, at first, that Landau Lifschitz is at least infinitely better—maybe more. Is Rindler somehow silly, or a person of poor taste? No, that’s not at all the case. He makes this choice for a clear pedagogical reason. He wants to show that the principle that physics is the same in all inertial systems is of primary importance and that the invariance of light speed in all inertial frames gives us much less information. Is that true? It could be true (read Landau Lifschitz), but it is, whatever else, the view of an important scholar, and one that every student needs to take seriously—even if it is phrased in quite a laborious and perhaps somewhat self-inconsistent way.Rindler clearly tries to give the best possible understanding of the physics, apart from the mathematics. In that he certainly gets a partial success, but he seems to me not to get a full success. For that, I could cite his explanation of the relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, and space contraction in section 2.4. On the one hand, it is clearly independent of mathematics. On the other hand, I find it labored and unclear—perhaps poorly edited. These are very early examples in the book. To me, the whole book is something like that. It attempts to put full emphasis on the physical view while including only enough mathematics to make everything correct and essentially complete.It is my own idea that most people will be better served to use the two volumes of N.M.J. Woodhouse (of Oxford University) on special and general relativity as a better, easier, clearer introduction. Woodhouse makes no attempt to sidestep the mathematics, and that is appropriate. There is no actual understanding of relativity apart from the mathematics. So, it makes sense to grin and embrace it. I think his is the clearer and better place to start. For special relativity, the easy book of Taylor and Wheeler is probably better (although maybe a little cheesy). Everyone will need to read Rindler at some stage. Personally, I think it better to leave it as a “have to read”—like it or not. It’s aggravatingly unclear in important points. These ought to be something of an obstacle to first learning, although they will not really encumber a sophisticated reader. First become sophisticated with Woodhouse and then you can read Rindler through much more economically and without being bothered on belabored points.Rindler is actually a world class scholar—a great man. That is not tongue in cheek or some sort of backhanded attempt to insult him. He actually is a great scholar, and I respect that. I expect great scholars to offer better writing than this.

⭐I had to use this book for my graduate-level relativity/cosmology course. I managed to do well in the course, but only because my professor was quite willing to devote many office hours to helping students. Do you know what is good to have in a textbook, especially one that introduces highly abstract physics and mathematics like relativity and tensors? EXAMPLES. Rindler just zooms through, introducing abstraction after abstraction with no examples on how to actually use anything. Who is he kidding?If you don’t have a professor with flexible office hours and due dates, this book is worthless.

⭐An excellent text. The key results are presented systematically to assist learning. Proofs are left to the reader as exercises. A thoroughly enjoyable text.

⭐great book if you need it as supplement for a relativity course, book is also small so convenient to carry around.

⭐I had the privilege and honor to earn my doctorate in Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas where Professor Rindler is a member of the faculty. His course was clear and pragmatic as he introduced the concept of Relativity and the difficult mathematics associated with its development.This text has an increased number of examples and problems than the original text, Essential Relativity. If you are really interested in understanding the modern importance of General Relativity, you will not be disappointed.As a side note. Professor Rindler and his wife, Linda, are two of the most generous people I had the privilege to know. When I was a graduate student, they were ever so kind and helpful.Dr. David Kronmiller – San Diego California

⭐The book was in perfect condition and got to my place within a couple of days after ordering it. Great speed!

⭐J’emploie ce livre pour ma propre culture ; je suis un mathématicien retraité et n’ait aucune des connaissances préalables utiles en Physique .Evidemment , il existe quantité d’excellents ouvrages sur la relativité génarale essentiellement en anglais , le sujet est réellement difficile , quand on a dépassé la relarivité restreinte .L’ouvrage est celui d’un exceptionnel physicien théoricien spécialiste de la relativité générale ( à mon abis son ouvrage sur la théorie quantique des champs est moins bon …) et de la cosmologie .Chaque page est à la fois un régal et un défi . Chaque page se digére en prenant le temps et éventuellement on y revient mais ce qui importe ici est la diszcussion extrêmement d”étaillée sur les principes fondamentaux et le dévleoppement ulétrieur est vraiment un exemple absolu en métière d’exposition de question difficiles en les reandant passionnantes à chaque ligne .Tout étudiant post Premier Cycle en Physique devrait lire cet ouvrage et il en va de même de tout étudiant en mathématiques passionné de géométrie différentielle…..Condizioni del libro pietose. Pieno di pieghe e pagine strappate o distrutte. Ammaccature pure negli angoli e nei bordi del libro.Sconsigliatissimo

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