MIT OpenCourseWare
Free Online Course
English
30 hours worth of material
selfpaced
Overview
Course Features
- Video lectures
- Captions/transcript
- Assignments: problem sets (no solutions)
8.962 is MIT's graduate course in general relativity, which covers the basic principles of Einstein's general theory of relativity, differential geometry, experimental tests of general relativity, black holes, and cosmology.
Syllabus
1. Introduction and the geometric viewpoint on physics..
2. Introduction to tensors..
3. Tensors continued..
4. Volumes and volume elements; conservation laws..
5. The stress energy tensor and the Christoffel symbol..
6. The principle of equivalence..
7. Principle of equivalence continued; parallel transport..
8. Lie transport, Killing vectors, tensor densities..
9. Geodesics..
10. Spacetime curvature..
11. More on spacetime curvature..
12. The Einstein field equation..
13. The Einstein field equation (variant derivation)..
14. Linearized gravity I: Principles and static limit..
15. Linearized gravity II: Dynamic sources.
16. Gravitational radiation I.
17. Gravitational radiation II.
18. Cosmology I.
19. Cosmology II.
20. Spherical compact sources I.
21. Spherical compact sources II.
22. Black holes I.
23. Black holes II.
Taught by
Prof. Scott Hughes
