BRIEF REVIEW OF GENERAL RELATIVITY

Abstract

This chapter presents some of the basic concepts of general relativity. Topics discussed include notation and conventions, special relativity, manifolds and tensors, the metric tensor, Lie derivatives and Killing fields, coordinate transformationsm, covariant derivatives and geodesics, curvature, Bianchi identities and the Einstein tensor, general relativity, matter and the stress-energy tensor, the Einstein field equations, weak fields and gravitational waves, the Schwarzschild solution and black holes, black holes with charge and angular momentum, and causal structure, singularities and black holes.