A First Course in General Relativity by Schutz, Bernard

ISBN: 9780521887052

Cambridge University Press, 22 June 2009

Hardcover, 406 pages

Clarity, readability and rigor combine in the second edition of this widely-used textbook to provide the first step into general relativity for undergraduate students with a minimal background in mathematics. Topics within relativity that fascinate astrophysical researchers and students alike are covered with Schutz's characteristic ease and authority - from black holes to gravitational lenses, from pulsars to the study of the Universe as a whole. This edition now contains discoveries by astronomers that require general relativity for their explanation; a revised chapter on relativistic stars, including new information on pulsars; an entirely rewritten chapter on cosmology; and an extended, comprehensive treatment of modern detectors and expected sources. Over 300 exercises, many new to this edition, give students the confidence to work with general relativity and the necessary mathematics, whilst the informal writing style makes the subject matter easily accessible.

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Schutz has done a masterful job of incorporating ... new developments into a revised edition, which is sure to become a new "classic." I look forward to teaching out of the second edition of "first course."
Clifford M Will, McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University, St Louis

"This new edition retains all of the original's clarity and insight into the mathematical foundations of general relativity, but thoroughly updates the accounts of the application of the theory in astrophysics and cosmology, which have moved on considerably ... The result is an indispensable volume for anyone wishing to develop a deep and physically well-motivated understanding of relativistic gravitation, and this new edition will no doubt become a classic text in its own right."
Mike Hobson, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge

"Schutz has updated his eminently readable and eminently teachable A First Course in General Relativity. The result maintains the style of the first edition -- intuitively and physically motivated presentation of the subject. ... This text will be appreciated by any upper level undergraduate with an interest in cosmology, astrophysics, or experimentation in gravitational physics."
Richard Matzner, The Center for Relativity, University of Texas at Austin

"Well laid out, developing logically and amply illustrated. Absolutely recommended."
Times Higher Education Supplement

Book Description
Second edition of a widely-used textbook providing the first step into general relativity for undergraduate students with minimal mathematical background.

About the Author
Bernard Schutz has done research and teaching in general relativity and especially its applications in astronomy since 1970. He is the author of more than 200 publications, including Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics and Gravity from the Ground Up (both published by Cambridge University Press). Schutz currently specialises in gravitational wave research, studying the theory of potential sources and designing new methods for analysing the data from current and planned detectors. He is a member of most of the current large-scale gravitational wave projects: GEO600 (of which he is a PI), the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and LISA. Schutz is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, also known as the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI), in Potsdam, Germany. He holds a part-time chair in Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University, Wales, as well as honorary professorships at Potsdam and Hanover universities in Germany. Educated in the USA, he taught physics and astronomy for twenty years at Cardiff before moving to Germany in 1995 to the newly-founded AEI. In 1998 he founded the open-access online journal Living Reviews in Relativity. The Living Reviews family now includes six journals. In 2006 he was awarded the Amaldi Gold Medal of the Italian Society for Gravitation (SIGRAV), and in 2011 he received an honorary DSc from the University of Glasgow. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and a member of the Learned Society of Wales, the German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina and the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, Uppsala.