General Relativity (June ~ August)

In Part II, the preliminary investigations of Part I culminate in the derivation of General Relativity, followed by the standard material on the weak field expansion, cosmology, and spherically symmetric solutions. The action principle is given a full description as well, while the last chapter is devoted to causal structures and Penrose diagrams.

6. The Einstein Equation ( June 3rd )

7. Cosmology in Brief ( July 5th : In the lecture here, I mainly talk about the energy-momentum tensor, drawing a little from Chapter 9, instead of covering the content of Chapter 7. The early and simple overview of Cosmology in the latter serves as a reminder of how prolific and successful General Relativity has been in explaining our own universe, which should prepare you for more comprehensive material on the subject, say, in "Physical Foundations of Cosmology" by V. Mukhanov.)

8. Spherically Symmetric Solutions ( July 11th )

9. Action Principle and Energy-Momentum Tensor ( July 14th, August 29th )

10. More Solutions ( We will skip the bulk of the chapter, other than the Reissner-Nordstrom whose detail is to be discussed at the head of the lecture for Chapter 11. )

11. Causal Structures ( I am late with this last one; it will appear hopefully before the full-moon holidays. )