Ebook: Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie

Dieses Buch gibt eine Einführung in die Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie, also in Einsteins relativistische Theorie der Gravitation. Zu den behandelten Anwendungen der Theorie gehören Experimente im Sonnensystem, Gravitationswellen, Sterne und der Kosmos.

Die Darstellung bewegt sich auf dem Niveau einer Kursvorlesung in Theoretischer Physik, also auf einem für das Thema eher einfachen Niveau. In der vorliegenden 5. Auflage sind erstmals Musterlösungen für die über 40 gestellten Aufgaben enthalten.

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General relativity is a theory proposed by Einstein in 1915 as a unified theory of space, time and gravitation. It is based on and extends Newton's theory of gravitation as well as Newton's equations of motion. It is thus fundamentally rooted in classical mechanics. The theory can be seen as a development of Riemannian geometry, itself an extension of Gauss' intrinsic theory of curved surfaces in Euclidean space. The domain of application of the theory is astronomical systems. One of the mathematical methods analyzed and exploited in the present volume is an extension of Noether's fundamental principle connecting symmetries to conserved quantities. This is involved at a most elementary level in the very definition of the notion of hyperbolicity for an Euler-Lagrange system of partial differential equations. Another method, the study and systematic use of foliations by characteristic (null) hypersurfaces, is in the spirit of Roger Penrose's approach in his incompleteness theorem. The methods have applications beyond general relativity to problems in fluid mechanics and, more generally, to the mechanics and electrodynamics of continuous media. The book is intended for advanced students and researchers seeking an introduction to the methods and applications of general relativity. A publication of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Distributed within the Americas by the American Mathematical Society