2024 Faculty Courses School of Science Undergraduate major in Physics
General Relativity
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Physics
- Instructor(s)
- Teruaki Suyama
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue / 3-4 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- PHY.F353
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This course presents concepts and ideas of general relativity, which describes geometry and gravitation. Topics include the applications to astrophysics and cosmology as well.
The aim of this course is to understand the basics of general relativity.
Course description and aims
The aim of this course is for students to understand applications to cosmology and astrophysics as well as basic concepts and ideas of general relativity
Keywords
relativity, gravitation, spacetime, differential geometry
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Explain basic concepts on the blackboard.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | guidance, special relativity |
special relativity |
| Class 2 | space, manifold, coordinate |
concept of spacetime |
| Class 3 | vector, tensor |
tensor algebra |
| Class 4 | geodesic equation |
connection, geodesic |
| Class 5 | Riemann curvature |
differential geometry |
| Class 6 | Einstein equation |
equivalence principle |
| Class 7 | weak gravity |
recover the Newtonian gravity |
| Class 8 | spherically symmetric spacetime solution |
Schwarzschild metric |
| Class 9 | black hole 1 |
Kurskal coordinate |
| Class 10 | black hole 2 |
causality of black hole |
| Class 11 | black hole 3 |
derive various fundamental properties of black holes |
| Class 12 | gravitational waves 1 |
derive equation for gravitational waves |
| Class 13 | gravitational waves 2 |
determine life time of binary |
| Class 14 | expanding universe |
derive solutions which describe the expanding space |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to review class content afterwards for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Information will be given during lectures.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Landau–Lifshitz The Classical Theory of Fields
R.M.Wald General Relativity
Evaluation methods and criteria
Evaluate how much a student understands basic ideas, calculation methods, and their applications.
Evaluation will be done through written exam.
Related courses
- PHY.F431 ： Cosmology
- PHY.F432 ： Astrophysics
Prerequisites
special relativity、liniear algebra
Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).
suyama[at]phys.titech.ac.jp
Office hours
No specific dates. Inform me in advance if you want to visit my office.