Advanced General Relativity

Abstract

This book is aimed at students who have completed a final year undergraduate course on general relativity and supplemented it with additional techniques by individual study or in a taught MSc programme. The additional technical knowledge required involves the Cartan calculus, the tetrad formalism including aspects of the Newman–Penrose formalism, the Ehlers–Sachs theory of null geodesic congruences, and the Petrov classification of gravitational fields. Each chapter could be used as a basis for an advanced undergraduate or early postgraduate project. The topics covered fall under three general headings: Gravitational waves in vacuo and in a cosmological setting, equations of motion with particular emphasis on spinning particles, and black holes. These are not individual applications of the techniques mentioned above. The techniques are available for use in whole or in part (mainly in part) as each situation demands.