Chapter 1

Introduction

General relativity is a theory of gravity that represents a

radical new view of space and time.
It supercedes Newtonian mechanics and Newtonian
gravity.
It reduces to those theories in the limit of velocities
that are small with respect to the speed of light c and
gravitational fields that are weak.
It reduces to the theory of special relativity in the
limit of weak gravitational fields, or for sufficiently
local regions of spacetime in the presence of strong
gravitational fields.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

General relativity revises fundamentally the very meaning

of space, time, and gravity:
The effects of gravity no longer appear as a force but
as the motion of free particles constrained to move in
the straightest paths possible in a curved spacetime.
That is, general relativity will identify the effects of
gravity as arising from curvature in spacetime itself
on free particles.
Wheeler: mass tells space how to curve;
curved space tells matter how to move.
Implied in the circularity of this statement is another
basic feature ofgeneral relativity: it is a highly nonlinear theory:
Only when we know the curvature of space
can we know the distribution and motionof
matter, but the curvature of space is only understood when we know the distribution and
motion of the matter.

As a result of the non-linear nature of general relativity

and its formulation on a 4-dimensional spacetime manifold, it is notoriously difficult to find exact solutions for
the theory and only a few of clear physical significance
are known.
In the general case one must solve the resulting nonlinear equations numerically (numerical relativity).
However, we shall see that the simplest known solutions of general relativity actually may be formulated
in remarkably transparent and elegant mathematical
terms because of symmetries.
These formulations may then be used to understand
some of the most intriguing aspects of the theory:
black holes,
dark matter, dark energy, and the new cosmology
the prediction that disturbances in spacetime itself may propagate as gravitational waves.
These lecture notes are an attempt to come to grips with
these ideas at a level appropriate for an advanced undergraduate physics major.