Special and General Relativity

Sebastian Boblest studied physics at the University of Stuttgart and earned his PhD in Theoretical Physics. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems at the University of Stuttgart.His research interests were visualization in special and general relativity, as well as the visualization of flow simulations on supercomputers. He now works with Robert Bosch GmbH, Reutlingen, in the field of embedded artificial intelligence.Thomas Müller is a research associate at the House of Astronomy and at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. He studied physics at the Eberhards Karls University of Tübingen, where he also earned his PhD.He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems at the University of Stuttgart. His research interests are visualization in special and general relativity, astronomy, and astrophysics, the visualization of high-resolution LIDAR data for geomorphological analyses, and the development of educational software.Günter Wunner studied physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he earned his PhD and his habilitation degree. He worked as an associate professor at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Tübingen. He held a chair for Theoretical Plasma and Atomic Physics at the University of the Ruhr at Bochum.He was head of the Institute of Theoretical Physics I at the University of Stuttgart.His research areas include nonlinear dynamics in quantum physics, non-Hermitian quantum mechanics, as well as atomic physics and astrophysics.

• Introduction.- The road to special relativity.- Lorentz transformations.- Physical consequences of Lorentz.- Mathematical formalism of special relativity.- Relativistic mechanics.- Covariant formulation of electrodynamics.- Visual effects at relativistic velocities.- Visualization in special relativity.- The equivalence principle as the corner stone of general relativity.- Riemannian geometry.- Einstein’s field equations.- Schwarzschild metric.- Kerr metric and detection of two Kerr black holes.- Gravitational waves.- Visualization in general relativity.- Star formation.- Internal structure of stars.- Energy production in stars.- White dwarfs.- Neutron stars.- Classification of stars.- Introduction to cosmology.- The cosmological principle and ist implication for the metric of the universe.- Field equations for the FLRW metric.- General forms of energy.- Theoretical prerequisites for cosmological observations.- SN Ia as standard candles for the young universe.- Cosmic microwave background radiation.- The first few moments.