Role within the programme and connections to other courses. Along with quantum theory, general relativity is one of the central pillars of modern theoretical physics with wide-ranging implications for astrophysics and high energy physics. The essential idea is that gravitation is a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime rather than a force in Newtonian sense. This course will provide students with a basic working understanding of general relativity and an introduction to important applications such as black holes and cosmology.
Content. Review and geometric interpretation of special relativity; foundations of general relativity; linearized gravity and classical tests; black holes; cosmology. Credit cannot be obtained for both MATH 4483 and PHYS 4983.