General Relativity: An Introduction to the Theory of Gravitational Field Book

This nontechnical introduction to the theory of gravitation deals with those parts of the theory that are essential to the beginning student of general relativity, giving all the mathematics necessary for understanding the theory. In this revised second edition, the experimental evidence has been updated and the sections on quantum physics have been rewritten and enlarged. Starting with the foundations of Riemannian geometry and the tensor calculus, the author formulates and works out the essential laws of physics in Riemannian space. Next, the Einstein field equations are derived. All important applications of the theory are dealt with, including issues of current importance, in particular the Schwarzschild metric, gravitational waves, gravitational collapse, black holes and cosmological models. All the associated basic physical problems are fully discussed, but many results that draw heavily on mathematics are given without derivation. The relation to observations and the latest numerical results obtained from them is established.