This book serves as a textbook for senior undergraduate students who are learning the subject of general relativity and gravitational waves for the first time. Both authors have been teaching the course in various forms for a few decades and have designed the book as a one stop book at basic level including derivations and exercises.

A spectacular prediction of general relativity is gravitational waves. Gravitational waves were first detected by the LIGO detectors in 2015, hundred years after their prediction. Both authors are part of the LIGO Science Collaboration and were authors on the discovery paper. Therefore, a strong motivation for this book is to provide the essential concepts of general relativity theory and gravitational waves with their modern applications to students and to researchers who are new to the multi-disciplinary field of gravitational wave astronomy. One of the advanced topics covered in this book is the fundamentals of gravitational wave data analysis, filling a gap in textbooks on general relativity. The topic blends smoothly with other chapters in the book not only because of the common area of research, but it uses similar differential geometric and algebraic tools that are used in general relativity.

Serves as one stop introductory text on general relativity at senior undergraduate level Offers an introduction to gravitational wave physics for researchers entering the field Is the first introductory textbook to cover gravitational wave data analysis

Autorentext

Prof. Sanjeev Dhurandhar has published over hundred papers in top international journals such as Physical Reviews, MNRAS, Classical & Quantum Gravity, and also a review article (coauthored with M. Tinto) in Living Reviews published by Springer. About three quarters of the publications are on gravitational waves, mainly on their data analysis, and the rest are on various aspects of general relativity. Recently, he has published a book (Springer) entitled General Relativity and Gravitational Waves: Essentials of theory and Practice co-authored with Prof. Sanjit Mitra. The author led the gravitational wave group at IUCAA from 1989 to 2011 until he superannuated. He has taught the Mathematical Physics course at IUCAA at graduate level to physics students for decades and also in the mathematics & physics department of Pune University in the1980s. He has also given courses on differential geometry, probability theory etc. during his career at IUCAA. He holds a Master's degree in mathematics (he switched to physics for his Ph. D.). The author is a recipient of several prestigious awards which include the Vijnan Bhushan Firodia Award for Outstanding Contributions to Science, the Meghnad Saha Memorial Gold Medal (The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, India) for Outstanding Contributions to Physics, Milners breakthrough prize (Milners Foundation U.S.A.) awarded for the detection of gravitational waves (shared with the Ligo Science Collaboration), etc. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the three prestigious Indian academies: (i) Indian National Science Academy, Delhi, (ii) the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, and (iii) National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad.

Inhalt

Preface.- 1 Special Relativity.- 2 Equivalence Principle.- 3 Tensor algebra in curvilinear coordinates.- 4 The Geometry of Curved Spaces and Tensor Calculus.- 5 Einstein's Equations.- 6 Schwarzschild Solution and Black Holes.- 7 Tests of GR.- 8 Gravitational Waves.- 9 GW Data Analysis.- Bibliography.