Kirjahaku

Following on from a previous volume on Special Relativity, Andrew Steane's second volume on General Relativity and Cosmology is aimed at advanced undergraduate or graduate students undertaking a physics course, and encourages them to expand their knowledge of Special Relativity. Beginning with a survey of the main ideas, the textbook goes on to give the methodological foundations to enable a working understanding of astronomy and gravitational waves (linearized approximation, differential geometry, covariant differentiation, physics in curved spacetime). It covers the generic properties of horizons and black holes, including Hawking radiation, introduces the key concepts in cosmology and gives a grounding in classical field theory, including spinors and the Dirac equation, and a Lagrangian approach to General Relativity. The textbook is designed for self-study and is aimed throughout at clarity, physical insight, and simplicity, presenting explanations and derivations in full, and providing many explicit examples.

Following on from a previous volume on Special Relativity, Andrew Steane's second volume on General Relativity and Cosmology is aimed at advanced undergraduate or graduate students undertaking a physics course, and encourages them to expand their knowledge of Special Relativity. Beginning with a survey of the main ideas, the textbook goes on to give the methodological foundations to enable a working understanding of astronomy and gravitational waves (linearized approximation, differential geometry, covariant differentiation, physics in curved spacetime). It covers the generic properties of horizons and black holes, including Hawking radiation, introduces the key concepts in cosmology and gives a grounding in classical field theory, including spinors and the Dirac equation, and a Lagrangian approach to General Relativity. The textbook is designed for self-study and is aimed throughout at clarity, physical insight, and simplicity, presenting explanations and derivations in full, and providing many explicit examples.

The role of thermodynamics in modern physics is not just to provide an approximate treatment of large thermal systems, but, more importantly, to provide an organising set of ideas. Thermodynamics: A complete undergraduate course presents thermodynamics as a self-contained and elegant set of ideas and methods. It unfolds thermodynamics for undergraduate students of physics, chemistry or engineering, beginning at first year level. The book introduces the necessary mathematical methods, assuming almost no prior knowledge, and explains concepts such as entropy and free energy at length, with many examples. This book aims to convey the style and power of thermodynamic reasoning, along with applications such as Joule-Kelvin expansion, the gas turbine, magnetic cooling, solids at high pressure, chemical equilibrium, radiative heat exchange and global warming, to name a few. It mentions but does not pursue statistical mechanics, in order to keep the logic clear.

The role of thermodynamics in modern physics is not just to provide an approximate treatment of large thermal systems, but, more importantly, to provide an organising set of ideas. Thermodynamics: A complete undergraduate course presents thermodynamics as a self-contained and elegant set of ideas and methods. It unfolds thermodynamics for undergraduate students of physics, chemistry or engineering, beginning at first year level. The book introduces the necessary mathematical methods, assuming almost no prior knowledge, and explains concepts such as entropy and free energy at length, with many examples. This book aims to convey the style and power of thermodynamic reasoning, along with applications such as Joule-Kelvin expansion, the gas turbine, magnetic cooling, solids at high pressure, chemical equilibrium, radiative heat exchange and global warming, to name a few. It mentions but does not pursue statistical mechanics, in order to keep the logic clear.

Relativity Made Relatively Easy presents an extensive study of Special Relativity and a gentle (but exact) introduction to General Relativity for undergraduate students of physics. Assuming almost no prior knowledge, it allows the student to handle all the Relativity needed for a university course, with explanations as simple, thorough, and engaging as possible. The aim is to make manageable what would otherwise be regarded as hard; to make derivations as simple as possible and physical ideas as transparent as possible. Lorentz invariants and four-vectors are introduced early on, but tensor notation is postponed until needed. In addition to the more basic ideas such as Doppler effect and collisions, the text introduces more advanced material such as radiation from accelerating charges, Lagrangian methods, the stress-energy tensor, and introductory General Relativity, including Gaussian curvature, the Schwarzschild solution, gravitational lensing, and black holes. A second volume will extend the treatment of General Relativity somewhat more thoroughly, and also introduce Cosmology, spinors, and some field theory.