Gravitation / Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne [and] John Archibald Wheeler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Misner, Charles W.

Thorne, Kip S., author.

Wheeler, John Archibald, 1911-2008, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gravitation.

Astrophysics.

General relativity (Physics).

Physical Description:

xxvi, 1279 pages 26 cm

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : W. H. Freeman, [1973]

Summary:

Put as simply as possible, this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity). It is the first textbook on the subject that uses throughout the modern formalism and notation of differential geometry, and it is the first book to document in full the revolutionary techniques developed during the past decade to test the theory of general relativity.

Contents:

Part I Spacetime Physics

1 Geometrodynamics in Brief

Part II Physics in Flat Spacetime

2 Foundations of Special Relativity

3 The Electromagnetic Field

4 Electromagnetism and Differential Forms

5 Stress-Energy Tensor and Conservation Laws

6 Accelerated Observers

7 Incompatibility of Gravity and Special Relativity

Part III The Mathematics of Curved Spacetime

8 Differential Geometry: An Overview

9 Differential Topology

10 Affine Geometry: Geodesics, Parallel Transport and Covariant Derivatives

11 Geodesic Deviation and Spacetime Curvature

12 Newtonian Gravity in the Language of Curved Spacetime

13 Riemannian Geometry: Metric as Foundation of All

14 Calculation of Curvature

15 Bianchi Identities and the Boundary of a Boundary

Part IV Einstein's Geometric Theory of Gravity

16 Equivalence Principle and Measuremetn of the "Gravitational Field"

17 How Mass-Energy Generates Curvature

18 Weak Gravitational Fields

19 Mass and Angular Momentum of a Gravititing System

20 Conservation Laws for 4-Momentum and Angular Momentum

21 Variation Principle and Initial-Value Data

22 Thermodynamics, Hydrodynamics, Electrodynamics, Geometric Optics, and Kinetic Theory

Part V Relativistic Stars

23 Spherical Stars

24 Pulsars and Neutron Stars: Quasars and Supermassive Stars

25 The "Pit in the Potential" as the Central New Feature of Motion in Schwarzschild Geometry

26 Stellar Pulsations

Part VI The Universe

27 Idealized Cosmologies

28 Evolution of the Universe into Its Present State

29 Present State and Future Evolution of the Universe

30 Anisotropic and Inhomogeneous Cosmologies

Part VII Gravitational Collapse and Black Holes

31 Schwarzschild Geometry

32 Gravitational Collapse

33 Black Holes

34 Global Techniques, Horizons, and Singularity Theorems

Part VIII Gravitational Waves

35 Propagation of Gravitational Waves

36 Generation of Gravitational Waves

37 Detection of Gravitational Waves

Part IX Experimental Tests of General Relativity

38 Testing the Foundations of Relativity

39 Other Theories of Gravity and the Post-Newtonian Approximation

40 Solar-System Experiment

Part X Frontiers

41 Spinors

42 Regge Calculus

43 Superspace: Arena for the Dynamics of Geometry

44 Beyond the End of Time.

ISBN:

0716703343

OCLC:

585119