This monograph describes the different formulations of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Unlike traditional treatments, Cartan's geometry of fibre bundles and differential forms is placed at the forefront, and a detailed review of the relevant differential geometry is presented. Particular emphasis is given to general relativity in 4D space-time, in which the concepts of chirality and self-duality begin to play a key role. Associated chiral formulations are catalogued, and shown to lead to many practical simplifications. The book develops the chiral gravitational perturbation theory, in which the spinor formalism plays a central role. The book also presents in detail the twistor description of gravity, as well as its generalisation based on geometry of 3-forms in seven dimensions. Giving valuable insight into the very nature of gravity, this book joins our highly prestigious Cambridge Monographs in Mathematical Physics series. It will interest graduate students and researchers in the fields of theoretical physics and differential geometry.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'The work is mathematically rigorous and complete. Researchers working in fields such as quantum gravity will find this a very useful reference. Postgraduate students will also find it a helpful adjunct to the usual books on general relativity.' A. Spero, Choice '... in this book Krasnov deals mainly with chiral formulations of four-dimensional general relativity, a topic that usually is not present in most (if not all) of the relevant textbooks, thereby bringing to the forefront the importance of Cartan's calculus of differential forms, the geometry of fibre bundles, but also spinors and (finally) twistors.' Theophanes Grammenos, MathSciNet
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Für Beruf und Forschung
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
Worked examples or Exercises; 1 Tables, black and white; 2 Halftones, black and white; 3 Line drawings, black and white
Maße
Höhe: 249 mm
Breite: 175 mm
Dicke: 27 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-108-48164-9 (9781108481649)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Kirill Krasnov is Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Nottingham. Since receiving his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, he has worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam.
Autor*in
University of Nottingham
Preface; Introduction; 1. Aspects of differential geometry; 2. Metric and related formulations; 3. Cartan's tetrad formulation; 4. General relativity in 2+1 dimensions; 5. The 'chiral' formulation of general relativity; 6. Chiral pure connection formulation; 7. Deformations of general relativity; 8. Perturbative descriptions of gravity; 9. Higher-dimensional descriptions; 10. Concluding remarks; References; Index.
