FY3452: Gravitation and CosmologyV 2025The course gives an introduction to classical field theory and general relativity including applications, in particular black holes, gravitational waves and cosmology. Lecturer, time and place:Michael Kachelrieß, email; office: D5-123Lectures: Monday 08.15-10.00, C4-118 Lectures + Exercises: Thursday 10.15-12.00, C4-118. Plan of the lectures (preliminary):Week 2: Special relativity, Lagrangian mechanics and symmetries.Week 3: Basic differential geometry. Week 4: Basic differential geometry. Week 5: Schwarzschild solution and tests Week 6: Schwarzschild black hole Week 7: Kerr black holes Week 8: Classical field theory Week 9: Classical field theory, curvature. Week 10: Curvature, Einstein equations Week 11: Home exam (date to be decided) Week 12: Linearized gravity Week 13: Gravitational waves Week 14: Monday: Guest lecture numcerical GR hydrodynamics, slides; Cosmology, FRW models Week 15: FRW models, structure formation, inflation Week 16: Easter Week 17: only Thursday PensumThe pensum is defined by the content of the lectures. We will follow roughly my lecture notes (which will be updated during the course), see the link below. The number of excellent text-books on gravity is large: You should check out the library to find the optimal book(s) for you, depending on the degree of mathematical rigor you prefer and the focus of the various authors on different types of applications. Some recommend ones are
Lectures notesYou can download the script here, last update from April, 2024. If you find more errors, let me know. You can obtain a maximal bonus of 5% for finding errors in the lecture notes: 5% for the student finding most errors, 4% for second most, etc. Email errors to me.Distribution of bonus points:
Material that can be omitted for the exam:Corrections:Language corrections are welcome, but not listed below
ExercisesWeek 3:SoftwareYou can find a python program for the calculation of Christoffel symbols, Riemann tensor, etc. here. Hartle provides several Mathematica notebooks.Home examThe one-week home exam in the middle of the semester will count 33% of the final mark.ExamThe final exam of this course (counting 67%) takes placeMarks and solution |