The discovery of compact objects, such as quasars and pulsars, and of the microwave background radiation, as well as the recent insight that astrophysical observations can illuminate elementary particle physics have greatly enhanced the interest in general relativity, which forms the theoretical background for these investigations.

Inhalt
I. The General Theory of Relativity.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Tensor Calculus and Riemannian Geometry.- 3. Einstein's Field Equations.- 4. The Schwarzschild Metric and Crucial Tests.- 5. Electromagnetism in General Relativity.- 6. Axially Symmetric Fields.- 7. The Kerr Metric or the Rotating Black Hole.- 8. The EnergyMomentum Pseudotensor of the Gravitational Field and Loss of Energy by Gravitational Radiation.- 9. Analysis of the Observational Data of the HulseTaylor Pulsar. Confirmation of the Einstein Quadrupole Radiation Formula.- II. Relativistic Astrophysics.- 10. White Dwarf Stars.- 11. Stellar Evolution, Supernovae, and Compact Objects.- 12. Pulsars.- 13. Spherically Symmetric Star Models.- 14. Black Holes.- 15. Accretion onto Compact Objects.- III. Cosmology.- 16. The Standard Cosmological Model.- 17. The Singularity Problem.- 18. Thermal History of the UniverseCosmological Nucleosynthesis.- 19. Structure Formation in the Universe.- 20. Grand Unified Theory and Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking.- 21. The Inflationary Scenario.- 22. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix. Differential Forms.- A.1. Introductory Ideas and Definitions.- A.2. Connection 1-Forms and Ricci Rotation Coefficients.- A.3. Cartan's Equations of Structure.- A.4. Bianchi Identities and Symmetry Properties of the RiemannChristoffel Tensor.- A.5. An Example of the Calculation of the RiemannChristoffel Tensor.- References.