PHY407A - Special & General Relativity

Special Relativity: empirical evidence for the constancy of c, frames of reference; Lorentz transformations; relativity of simultaneity; twin and other paradoxes, transformation laws for velocity, momentum, energy; mass energy equivalence; force equations, kinematics of decays and collisions, Max wells equations in covariant form, representations of the Lorentz group and SL (2,C).Introduction to General Relativity: principle of equivalence; Machs principle, Riemannian geometry; Christ offer symbols, the curvature and stress energy tensors; the gravitational field equations; geodesics and particle trajectories, Schwarz child solution; experimental tests, basic cosmology, FRW metric; cosmological expansion; cosmic microwave background; helium abundance; anisotropies in the CMBR.