Lectures on general relativity, cosmology and quantum black holes Badis Ydri

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ydri, Badis, author.

Contributor:

Institute of Physics (Great Britain), publisher.

Series:

IOP Ebooks Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

General relativity (Physics).

Cosmology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

Second edition

Place of Publication:

Bristol [England] (Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK) IOP Publishing [2025]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.

Biography/History:

Badis Ydri is a professor of theoretical physics at the Institute of Physics, Annaba University, Algeria. He earned his PhD from Syracuse University, New York, USA, in 2001. He is also a research associate at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland. His postdoctoral work includes a Marie Curie fellowship at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and a Hamilton fellowship at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland. His general areas of expertise encompass quantum field theory, general relativity, string theory, and philosophy of physics. His ongoing research explores: 1) matrix quantum mechanics approaches to quantum black holes and quantum gravity, 2) gauge/gravity duality and M-theory, 3) noncommutative geometry and matrix models, 4) renormalization group equation and Monte Carlo methods, 5) artificial intelligence in computational physics, 6) quantum philosophy, and 7) hard physical philosophy of consciousness and existence. He is the author of seven books in theoretical physics

Summary:

The primary goal of this book is to allow students to understand in a critical way two pillars of modern theoretical physics: inflationary theory, and quantum black holes and the information-loss problem. Accordingly, the book extensively introduces black holes and cosmology before proceeding to the important issues found in inflation and the information-loss problem. Other important topics discussed in detail include the cosmological constant and its relation to dark energy and an introduction to quantum field theory on curved backgrounds. Readers of this text will be well prepared to follow the theoretical developments in the field and undertake research projects as part of an MSc or PhD programme

Contents:

1. General relativity essentials

1.1. Equivalence principle

1.2. Relativistic mechanics

1.3. Differential geometry primer

1.4. Curvature tensor

1.5. The stress-energy-momentum tensor

1.6. Einstein's equation

1.7. Killing vectors and maximally symmetric spaces

1.8. The Hilbert-Einstein action

1.9. Exercises

2. Black holes

2.1. Spherical star

2.2. Schwarzschild black hole

2.3. The Kruskal-Szekres diagram : maximally extended Schwarzschild solution

2.4. Various theorems and results

2.5. Reissner-Nordström (charged) black hole

2.6. Kerr spacetime

2.7. Black hole thermodynamics

2.8. Exercises

3. Cosmology I : the expanding Universe

3.1. Homogeneity and isotropy

3.2. Expansion and distances

3.3. Matter, radiation, and vacuum

3.4. Flat universe

3.5. Closed and open universes

3.6. Aspects of the early Universe

3.7. Concordance model

3.8. Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric

3.9. Friedmann equations

3.10. Examples of scale factors

3.11. Redshift, distances and age

3.12. Exercises

4. Cosmology II : the inflationary Universe

4.1. Cosmological puzzles

4.2. Elements of inflation

4.3. Perfect fluid revisited

4.4. Cosmological perturbations

4.5. Matter-radiation equality

4.6. Hydrodynamical adiabatic scalar perturbations

4.7. Quantum cosmological scalar perturbations

4.8. Rederivation of the Mukhanov action

4.9. Exercises

5. Quantum field theory on curved backgrounds, vacuum energy and quantum gravity

5.1. Dark energy

5.2. The cosmological constant

5.3. Elements of quantum field theory in curved spacetime

5.4. Calculation of vacuum energy in curved backgrounds

5.5. Is vacuum energy real?

5.6. The ADM formulation

5.7. A brief introduction of Horava-Lifshitz quantum gravity

5.8. Exercises

6. Hawking radiation, the information paradox and black hole thermodynamics

6.1. Introduction and summary

6.2. Rindler spacetime and general relativity

6.3. Schwarzschild black holes

6.4. Kruskal-Szekres diagram

6.5. Density matrix and entanglement

6.6. Rindler decomposition and Unruh effect

6.7. Quantum field theory in curved spacetime

6.8. Hawking radiation

6.9. Hawking radiation from quantum field theory in Schwarzschild background

6.10. The Unruh versuss Boulware vacua : pure to mixed

6.11. The information problem in black hole Hawking radiation

6.12. Black hole thermodynamics

6.13. Exercises

7. Quantum black holes and gauge/gravity duality

7.1. Outline

7.2. The JT-CFT2 system : a first look

7.3. More on JT gravity coupled to conformal matter

7.4. Entropy and quantum extremal surface in JT gravity

7.5. The 'island' conjecture

7.6. Summary

8. Loop quantum gravity and Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind approaches to quantum gravity

8.1. Loop quantum gravity

8.2. BFSS matrix model and gauge/gravity duality

8.3. Causal dynamical triangulation and multitrace matrix models

Appendix A. Differential geometry primer

Notes:

"Version: 20250601"--Title page verso

Includes bibliographical references

Online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on July 1, 2025)

Other Format:

Print version Lectures on general relativity, cosmology and quantum black holes

ISBN:

9780750358248

9780750358231

OCLC:

1526555122

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license