http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~phys231A

Physics 231A
General Relativity I
Fall 2011
MWF 9-9:50, GIRV 2108

Professor:  Don Marolf	Grader: Amy Thompson
Office hrs: M 10-11:30, F 2:30-3:30
Broida 6131

Textbooks:  1) Robert M. Wald's General Relativity and
2) Sean Carroll’s Spacetime and Geometry

Bernard Shutz'ss A first course in general relativity and Jim Hartle’s Gravity are also very excellent resources. I recommend Shutz for insight into the stress-energy tensor and Hartle for excellent descriptions of experiments and tests of G.R. In this latter vein, I of course also recommend Clifford Will’s Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Physics.

You may also be interested in my Notes on Relativity and Cosmology at (http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~marolf/MasterNotes.pdf). These notes were written for a very introductory undergraduate course, but some sections may be useful developing your conceptual understanding.

Homework will be due weekly by noon on Tuesdays. (Let me know if this is a bad day.) Please hand in your HW by placing it in the Phys 231A box in the Broida lobby.

Homework and the (take-home) final will count equally towards the course grade. The take-home final exam will be available Sunday Dec. 4 and is due before noon on Friday, Dec. 9. It is designed to be a 12 hour exam. Download it from the course web page some time when you have 12 contiguous hours to spend on it and be sure to finish before those 12 hours are up.

Final Exam

Assignments Page (with solutions!)

Variational Principle Notes

The stress tensor as the canonical generator of spacetime symmetries

Tentative Schedule (to be updated):

Mon	Wed	Fri	Lecture	Chapters
		9/23	1. Introduction	Wald Ch 1, Carroll Ch. 1
9/26			2. The Equivalence Principle	Wald Ch 1, Carroll Ch. 1
	9/28		3. The Equivalence Principle	Wald Ch 1, Carroll Ch. 1
		9/30	4. Metrics	Wald Ch 2, Carroll Ch. 2
10/3			5. Geodesics	Wald Ch 2,3, Carroll Ch. 2,3
	10/05		6. Coordinate Invariance	Wald Ch 2, Carroll Ch. 2
		10/07	7. Tensors and notation	Wald Ch 2, Carroll Ch. 2
10/10			8. Integration and Scalar field theory	Wald Ch 3, Carroll Ch. 3
	10/12		9. Derivatives in Curved space	Wald Ch 3, Carroll Ch. 3
		10/14	10. Derivatives in curved space	Wald Ch 3 Carroll Ch 3
10/17			11. Derivatives in Curved Space	Wald Ch 3 Carroll Ch 3
	10/19		12. Curvature	Wald Ch 3, Carroll Ch 3
		10/21	13. Curvature	Wald Ch 3, Carroll Ch 3
10/24			14. Curvature	Wald Ch 3, Carroll Ch 3
	10/26		15. Gravitational Dynamics	Wald Ch 4, Carroll Ch 4
		10/28	16. The Newtonian Approximation	Wald Ch. 4 and Carroll Ch 4
10/31			17. New effects and tests of GR	Wald Ch. 4 and Carroll Ch. 4
	11/02		18. New Effects and Tests of GR	Wald Ch. 4 and Carroll Ch. 4
		11/04	19. The Physics of Stress Energy	none
11/07			20. The Physics of Stress Energy	none
	11/09		21. Symmetries and Diffeomorphisms	Carroll App B & sec 3.8,3.9 and Wald App C
		11/11	Veteran's Day Holiday
11/14			22. Symmetries and Diffeomorphisms	Carroll App B & sec 3.8,3.9 and Wald App C
	11/16		23. Symmetries and Diffeomorphisms	Carroll App B & sec 3.8,3.9 and Wald App C
		11/18	24. Cosmology
11/21			25. Cosmology
	11/23		26. Cosmology
		11/25	Thanksgiving Holiday
11/28			27. Cosmology
	11/30		28. Cosmology
		12/02	29. Cosmology