Sean Carroll
Caltech; Author of Spacetime and Geometry
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Sean Carroll
“It is a pleasure to read Sidney Coleman’s Lectures on Relativity, characterized as one would expect by exceptional clarity and insight. They are surprisingly modern, to boot, including discussions of black holes and cosmology. Any fan of relativity would benefit from reading them.” (from Amazon)
by David J. Griffiths, David Derbes, Richard B. Sohn·You?
by David J. Griffiths, David Derbes, Richard B. Sohn·You?
Sidney Coleman (1937–2007) earned his doctorate at Caltech under Murray Gell-Mann. Before completing his thesis, he was hired by Harvard and remained there his entire career. A celebrated particle theorist, he is perhaps best known for his brilliant lectures, given at Harvard and in a series of summer school courses at Erice, Sicily. Three times in the 1960s he taught a graduate course on Special and General Relativity; this book is based on lecture notes taken by three of his students and compiled by the Editors.
Recommended by Sean Carroll
“General relativity is the most beautiful physical theory we have, and plays an increasingly central role in modern physics. Carlo Rovelli’s introduction is both concise and comprehensive, written by a master of exposition as well as of the material. I envy anyone encountering these ideas for the first time.” (from Amazon)
by Carlo Rovelli·You?
by Carlo Rovelli·You?
In this short book, renowned theoretical physicist and author Carlo Rovelli gives a straightforward introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, our current theory of gravitation. Focusing on conceptual clarity, he derives all the basic results in the simplest way, taking care to explain the physical, philosophical and mathematical ideas at the heart of “the most beautiful of all scientific theories”. Some of the main applications of General Relativity are also explored, for example, black holes, gravitational waves and cosmology, and the book concludes with a brief introduction to quantum gravity. Written by an author well known for the clarity of his presentation of scientific ideas, this concise book will appeal to university students looking to improve their understanding of the principal concepts, as well as science-literate readers who are curious about the real theory of General Relativity, at a level beyond a popular science treatment.