Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol43 Issue62 26–30 March 2018

General Relativity

An Introduction to Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Cosmology

Michael Hall’s up-to-date textbook on general relativity has just appeared, covering topics ranging from gravitational wave detection to our accelerating universe.

Published as part of the IOP Concise Physics series, it is based on a short course of Honours lectures delivered over the last five years in Brisbane, prior to Dr Hall joining the Department of Theoretical Physics at ANU.

The book begins with a review of special relativity and tensors, and then introduces the basic elements of general relativity– including applications to global positioning systems, the detection of gravitational waves from black hole and neutron star mergers, and elements of cosmology such as the Nobel-Prize winning work on the accelerating expansion of our universe by our own Vice Chancellor.

General relativity is an active and exciting field of physics, and this introductory textbook aims to transmit that excitement to the reader.  There are also occasional ‘asides’ in some chapters, that make tangential connections between general relativity and other topics.

The book can be downloaded for free for readers with access to the ANU library, and print and ebook versions will be available shortly for purchase from the Morgan and Claypool website.   

http://www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com/catalog_Orig/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=1222