Wolfgang Rindler - Böcker

This book is a considerable amplification and modernisation of the author's earlier Essential Relativity. It aims to bring the challenge and excitement of modern relativity and cosmology at rigorous mathematical level within reach of advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates, while containing enough new material to interest lecturers and researchers. Its basic purpose is to make relativity come alive conceptually. Hence the emphasis on the foundations and the logical subtleties rather than on the mathematics or the detailed experiments per se. Aided by some 300 exercises, it promotes a visceral understanding and the confidence to tackle any fundamental relativistic problem. Following a critical overview of the whole field, special-relativistic kinematics is presented three- dimensionally before the mathematical level gradually rises. Four-vectors precede mechanics, four-tensors precede Maxwell theory, and two of the eight chapters on general relativity roll by before general tensors are needed. Three 'easy' chapters on cosmology round off the work.

This book is intended for undergraduates taking an introductory course on special relativity which is rather more conceptually and mathematically than experimentally orientated. A suitably prepared reader could use it for self-study. It assumes no prior knowledge of relativity. Thus it elaborates the underlying logic, dwells on the subleties and apparent paradoxes, and also contains a large collection of problems which should just about cover all the basic modes of thinking and calculating in special relativity. Much emphasis has been laid on developing the student's intuition for space-time geometry and four-tensor calculus; but the approach is not so dogmatically four-dimensional that three-dimensional methods are rejected our of hand when they yield a result more directly. This updated new edition contains additional examples and problems, and the chapter on relativistic mechanics of continua has been substantially rewritten.

Relativistic cosmology has in recent years become one of the most exciting and active branches of current research. In conference after conference the view is expressed that cosmology today is where particle physics was forty years ago, with major discoveries just waiting to happen. Also gravitational wave detectors, presently under construction or in the testing phase, promise to open up an entirely novel field of physics. It is to take into account such recent developments, as well as to improve the basic text, that this second edition has been undertaken. The most affected is the last part on cosmology, but there are smaller additions, corrections, and additional exercises throughout. The books basic purpose is to make relativity come alive conceptually. Hence the emphasis on the foundations and the logical subtleties rather than on the mathematics or the detailed experiments per se. Aided by some 300 exercises, the book promotes a deep understanding and the confidence to tackle any fundamental relativistic problem. To request a copy of the Solutions Manual, visit: http: //global.oup.com/uk/academic/physics/admin/solutions

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 purpose is 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 differential geometry 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.

This volume introduces and systematically develops the calculus of 2-spinors. This is the first detailed exposition of this technique which leads not only to a deeper understanding of the structure of space-time, but also provides shortcuts to some very tedious calculations. Many results are given here for the first time.

In the two volumes that comprise this work Roger Penrose and Wolfgang Rindler introduce the calculus of 2-spinors and the theory of twistors, and discuss in detail how these powerful and elegant methods may be used to elucidate the structure and properties of space-time. In volume 1, Two-spinor calculus and relativistic fields, the calculus of 2-spinors is introduced and developed. Volume 2, Spinor and twistor methods in space-time geometry, introduces the theory of twistors, and studies in detail how the theory of twistors and 2-spinors can be applied to the study of space-time. This work will be of great value to all those studying relativity, differential geometry, particle physics and quantum field theory from beginning graduate students to experts in these fields.