Relativity, Gravitation, and Cosmology STATISTICAL, COMPUTATIONAL, and THEORETICAL PHYSICS 12
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OXFORD MASTER SERIES IN PARTICLE PHYSICS, ASTROPHYSICS, AND COSMOLOGY OXFORD MASTER SERIES IN PHYSICS The Oxford Master Series is designed for final year undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physics and related disciplines. It has been driven by a perceived gap in the literature today. While basic undergraduate physics texts often show little or no connection with the huge explosion of research over the last two decades, more advanced and specialized texts tend to be rather daunting for students. In this series, all topics and their consequences are treated at a simple level, while pointers to recent developments are provided at various stages. The emphasis is on clear physical principles like symmetry, quantum mechanics, and electromagnetism which underlie the whole of physics. At the same time, the subjects are related to real measurements and to the experimental techniques and devices currently used by physicists in academe and industry. Books in this series are written as course books, and include ample tutorial material, examples, illustrations, revision points, and problem sets. They can likewise be used as preparation for students starting a doctorate in physics and related fields, or for recent graduates starting research in one of these fields in industry. CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS 1. M. T. Dove: Structure and dynamics: an atomic view of materials 2. J. Singleton: Band theory and electronic properties of solids 3. A. M. Fox: Optical properties of solids 4. S. J. Blundell: Magnetism in condensed matter 5. J. F. Annett: Superconductivity 6. R. A. L. Jones: Soft condensed matter ATOMIC, OPTICAL, AND LASER PHYSICS 7. C. J. Foot: Atomic physics 8. G. A. Brooker: Modern classical optics 9. S. M. Hooker, C. E. Webb: Laser physics PARTICLE PHYSICS, ASTROPHYSICS, AND COSMOLOGY 10. D. H. Perkins: Particle astrophysics 11. T. P. Cheng: Relativity, gravitation, and cosmology STATISTICAL, COMPUTATIONAL, AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS 12. M. Maggiore: A modern introduction to quantum field theory 13. W. Krauth: Statistical mechanics: algorithms and computations 14. J. P. Sethna: Entropy, order parameters, and emergent properties Relativity, Gravitation, and Cosmology A basic introduction TA-PEI CHENG University of Missouri—St. Louis 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press, 2005 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cheng, Ta-Pei. Relativity, gravitation, and cosmology: a basic introduction / Ta-Pei Cheng. p. cm.—(Oxford master series in physics; no. 11) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-852956-2 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-19-852957-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. General relativity (Physics)—Textbooks. 2. Space and time. 3. Gravity. 4. Cosmology. I. Title. II. Series: Oxford master series in physics; 11. QC173.6.C4724 2005 530.11—dc22 2004019733 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Antony Rowe, Chippenham ISBN 0 19 852956 2 (Hbk) ISBN 0 19 852957 0 (Pbk) 10987654321 Preface It seems a reasonable expectation that every student receiving a university degree in physics will have had a course in one of the most important devel- opments in modern physics: Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Also, given the exciting discoveries in astrophysics and cosmology of recent years, it is highly desirable to have an introductory course whereby such subjects can be presented in their proper framework. Again, this is general relativity (GR). Nevertheless, a GR course has not been commonly available to undergradu- ates, or even for that matter, to graduate students who do not specialize in GR or field theory. One of the reasons, in my view, is the insufficient number of suitable textbooks that introduce the subject with an emphasis on physical examples and simple applications without the full tensor apparatus from the very beginning. There are many excellent graduate GR books; there are equally many excellent “popular” books that describe Einstein’s theory of gravitation and cosmology at the qualitative level; and there are not enough books in between. I am hopeful that this book will be a useful addition at this intermediate level. The goal is to provide a textbook that even an instructor who is not a relativist can teach from. It is also intended that other experienced physics readers who have not had a chance to learn GR can use the book to study the subject on their own. As explained below, this book has features that will make such an independent study particularly feasible. Students should have had the usual math preparation at the calculus level, plus some familiarity with matrices, and the physics preparation of courses on mechanics and on electromagnetism where differential equations of Maxwell’s theory are presented. Some exposure to special relativity as part of an intro- ductory modern physics course will also be helpful, even though no prior knowledge of special relativity will be assumed. Part I of this book concen- trates on the metric description of spacetime: first, the flat geometry as in special relativity, and then curved ones for general relativity. Here I discuss the equation of motion in Einstein’s theory, and many of its applications: the three classical tests, black holes, and gravitational lensing, etc. Part II contains three chapters on cosmology. Besides the basic equations describing a homoge- neous and isotropic universe, I present a careful treatment of distance and time in an expanding universe with a space that may be curved. The final chapter on cosmology, Chapter 9 provides an elementary discussion of the inflationary model of the big bang, as well as the recent discovery that the expansion of our universe is accelerating, implying the existence of a “dark energy.” The tensor formulation of relativity is introduced in Part III. After presenting special rela- tivity in a manifestly covariant formalism, we discuss covariant differentiation, parallel transport, and curvature tensor for a curved space. Chapter 12 contains the full tensor formulation of GR, including the Einstein’s field equation and its vi Preface solutions for various simple situations. The subject of gravitational waves can be found in the concluding chapter. The emphasis of the book is pedagogical. The necessary mathematics will be introduced gradually. Tensor calculus is relegated to the last part of the book. Discussion of curved surfaces, especially the familiar example of a spherical surface, precedes that of curved higher dimensional spaces. Parts I and II present the metric description of spacetime. Many applications (including cosmology) can already be discussed at this more accessible level; students can reach these interesting results without having to struggle through the full tensor formulation, which is presented in Part III of the book. A few other pedagogical devices are also deployed: • a bullet list of topical headings at the beginning of each chapter serves as the “chapter abstracts,” giving the reader a foretaste of upcoming material; • matter in marked boxes are calculation details, peripheral topics, historical tit-bits that can be skipped over depending on the reader’s interest; • Review questions at the end of each chapter should help beginning 1We find that the practice of frequent quizzes students to formulate questions on the key elements of the chapter1; brief based on these review questions are an effec- answers to these questions are provided at the back of the book; tive means to make sure that each member is • keeping up with the progress of the class. Solutions to selected problems at the end of the book also contains some extra material that can be studied with techniques already presented in the text. Given this order of presentation, with the more interesting applications coming before the difficult mathematical formalism, it is hoped that the book can be rather versatile in terms of how it can be used. Here are some of the possibilities: 1. Parts I and II should be suitable for an undergraduate course. The tensor formulation in Part III can then be used as extracurricular material for instructors to refer to, and for interested students to explore on their own. Much of the intermediate steps being given and more difficult problems having their solutions provided, this section can, in principle, be used as self-study material by a particularly motivated undergraduate. 2. The whole book can be used for a senior-undergraduate/beginning- graduate course. To fit into a one-semester course, one may have to leave some applications and illustrative examples to students as self-study topics.