Balša Terzic’s Relativity and Cosmology: From First Principles to Interpretations provides a high-quality and highly relevant astrophysics grounding for senior undergraduate students.
This comprehensive textbook emphasizes an illustrative, pedagogical approach. The book aims to strike a balance between the breadth and the depth of the material presented, frequently tying new material – relativistic mechanics and gravity – to the classical mechanics and gravity with which readers may be more familiar.
Balša Terzic’s Relativity and Cosmology: From First Principles to Interpretations includes robust content and corresponding exercises, figures, and appendices on many exciting developments in the field, including relativistic mechanics; Newtonian classical mechanics; relativistic spacetime; special relativity; general relativity; tensor calculus; cosmology; Einstein’s field equations; dark matter; dark energy; and black holes. This accessible first edition delivers helpful and engaging additions to the role and importance of physics in cosmology and relativity. It is ideal for courses in physics, astrophysics, astronomy, and related subjects.
1. Chapter 1 Introduction - p. 1 2. Chapter 2 Special relativity - p. 7 3. Chapter 3 The Equivalence Principle - p. 31 4. Chapter 4 General relativity - p. 41 5. Chapter 5 Einstein's field equations - p. 65 6. Chapter 6 The Schwarzschild metric and black holes - p. 77 7. Chapter 7 The cosmological metric and Friedmann's equations - p. 87 8. Chapter 8 Solutions of Friedmann's equations - p. 97 9. Chapter 9 Cosmological constant and the dark Universe - p. 111 10. Chapter 10 Cosmic distances - p. 123 11. Chapter 11 Summary of the foundations of cosmology - p. 133 12. Chapter 12 Cosmic content - p. 139 13. Chapter 13 Brief history of the early Universe - p. 165 14. Chapter 14 Cosmic microwave background radiation - p. 181 15. Epilogue - p. 197 16. Further reading - p. 199 17. Appendix A An alternative Lagrangian - p. 201 18. Appendix B Geodesic equation in spherical coordinates - p. 203 19. Appendix C Example of metric conversion - p. 207 20. Appendix D Applying the geodesic equation - p. 209 21. Appendix E Matter–dark energy equality - p. 211 22. Appendix F Radiation–dark energy equality - p. 213 23. Appendix G Radiation–matter equality - p. 215 24. Appendix H Chemical potential - p. 217 25. Appendix I How to compute the relative abundances of the light elements - p. 219 26. Appendix J Equation of state for the perfect fluid - p. 223 27. Appendix K Origins of the large-scale structure in the Universe - p. 225 28. Constants, units, and conversions - p. 231 29. References - p. 233 30. Index - p. 237
Balša Terzic’s Relativity and Cosmology: From First Principles to Interpretations provides a high-quality and highly relevant astrophysics grounding for senior undergraduate students.
This comprehensive textbook emphasizes an illustrative, pedagogical approach. The book aims to strike a balance between the breadth and the depth of the material presented, frequently tying new material – relativistic mechanics and gravity – to the classical mechanics and gravity with which readers may be more familiar.
Balša Terzic’s Relativity and Cosmology: From First Principles to Interpretations includes robust content and corresponding exercises, figures, and appendices on many exciting developments in the field, including relativistic mechanics; Newtonian classical mechanics; relativistic spacetime; special relativity; general relativity; tensor calculus; cosmology; Einstein’s field equations; dark matter; dark energy; and black holes. This accessible first edition delivers helpful and engaging additions to the role and importance of physics in cosmology and relativity. It is ideal for courses in physics, astrophysics, astronomy, and related subjects.
1. Chapter 1 Introduction - p. 1 2. Chapter 2 Special relativity - p. 7 3. Chapter 3 The Equivalence Principle - p. 31 4. Chapter 4 General relativity - p. 41 5. Chapter 5 Einstein's field equations - p. 65 6. Chapter 6 The Schwarzschild metric and black holes - p. 77 7. Chapter 7 The cosmological metric and Friedmann's equations - p. 87 8. Chapter 8 Solutions of Friedmann's equations - p. 97 9. Chapter 9 Cosmological constant and the dark Universe - p. 111 10. Chapter 10 Cosmic distances - p. 123 11. Chapter 11 Summary of the foundations of cosmology - p. 133 12. Chapter 12 Cosmic content - p. 139 13. Chapter 13 Brief history of the early Universe - p. 165 14. Chapter 14 Cosmic microwave background radiation - p. 181 15. Epilogue - p. 197 16. Further reading - p. 199 17. Appendix A An alternative Lagrangian - p. 201 18. Appendix B Geodesic equation in spherical coordinates - p. 203 19. Appendix C Example of metric conversion - p. 207 20. Appendix D Applying the geodesic equation - p. 209 21. Appendix E Matter–dark energy equality - p. 211 22. Appendix F Radiation–dark energy equality - p. 213 23. Appendix G Radiation–matter equality - p. 215 24. Appendix H Chemical potential - p. 217 25. Appendix I How to compute the relative abundances of the light elements - p. 219 26. Appendix J Equation of state for the perfect fluid - p. 223 27. Appendix K Origins of the large-scale structure in the Universe - p. 225 28. Constants, units, and conversions - p. 231 29. References - p. 233 30. Index - p. 237
