Table of Contents
Gravitation has an innovative two-track organization. Within chapters, specific material designated "Track 1" covers the key physical ideas that make up the indispensable core of gravitation theory. The remaining material, designated "Track 2" covers advanced topics.
• = Chapters which include at least some Track 1 material
Part I. Spacetime Physics
• 1. Geometrodynamics in Brief
Part II. Physics in Flat Spacetime
• 2. Foundations of Special Relativity
• 3. The Electromagnetic Field
4. Electromagnetism and Differential Forms
• 5. Stress-Energy Tensor and Conservation Laws
• 6. Accelerated Observers
7. Incompatibility of Gravity and Special Relativity
Part III. The Mathematics of Curved Spacetime
• 8. Differential Geometry: An Overview
9. Differential Topology
10. Affine Geometry: Geodesics, Parallel Transport and Covariant Derivatives
11. Geodesic Deviation and Spacetime Curvature
12. Newtonian Gravity in the Language of Curved Spacetime
13. Riemannian Geometry: Metric as Foundation of All
14. Calculation of Curvature
15. Bianchi Identities and the Boundary of a Boundary
Part IV. Einstein's Geometric Theory of Gravity
• 16. Equivalence Principle and Measuremetn of the "Gravitational Field"
• 17. How Mass-Energy Generates Curvature
• 18. Weak Gravitational Fields
• 19. Mass and Angular Momentum of a Gravititing System
20. Conservation Laws for 4-Momentum and Angular Momentum
21. Variation Principle and Initial-Value Data
22. Thermodynamics, Hydrodynamics, Electrodynamics, Geometric Optics, and Kinetic Theory
Part V. Relativistic Stars
• 23. Spherical Stars
• 24. Pulsars and Neutron Stars: Quasars and Supermassive Stars
• 25. The "Pit in the Potential" as the Central New Feature of Motion in Schwarzschild Geometry
26. Stellar Pulsations
Part VI. The Universe
27. Idealized Cosmologies
• 28. Evolution of the Universe into Its Present State
29. Present State and Future Evolution of the Universe
30. Anisotropic and Inhomogeneous Cosmologies
Part VII. Gravitational Collapse and Black Holes
• 31. Schwarzschild Geometry
• 32. Gravitational Collapse
• 33. Black Holes
34. Global Techniques, Horizons, and Singularity Theorems
Part VIII. Gravitational Waves
• 35. Propagation of Gravitational Waves
• 36. Generation of Gravitational Waves
• 37. Detection of Gravitational Waves
Part IX. Experimental Tests of General Relativity
• 38. Testing the Foundations of Relativity
• 39. Other Theories of Gravity and the Post-Newtonian Approximation
• 40. Solar-System Experiment
Part X. Frontiers
41. Spinors
42. Regge Calculus
43. Superspace: Arena for the Dynamics of Geometry
44. Beyond the End of Time