Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005cqgra..22.5199r&link_type=abstract
Classical and Quantum Gravity, Volume 22, Issue 23, pp. 5199 (2005).
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Wolfgang Rindler is known as a writer of exceptional clarity. This quality is evident in this book as it explores in depth first special relativity, then general relativity, and finally relativistic cosmology. He bases his writing in the fundamental underlying ideas and principles that so successfully guided Einstein in his work, clarifying their nature and implications in an illuminating way with many examples.
The usual suspects are there: the relativity principle and equivalence principle, the abolishing of absolute space, invariance of the speed of light, analytic and geometric representations of the Lorentz transformation, its kinematic and dynamic consequences, relativistic optics, Minkowski spacetime, energy and momentum conservation, and the Compton effect. Particularly useful is the emphasis on the unity of the whole: for example (p 63) that the kinematic effect of length shortening must imply a corresponding detailed mechanical explanation of that shortening. The tensor formulation of Maxwell's equations leads to the transformation properties of the electromagnetic field and consequent elegant derivation of the field of an infinite straight current; in this case, relativity is important even for slowly moving charges because an ordinary current moves a very big charge (p 151).
General relativity is systematically introduced in stages, starting with curved spaces and moving on through static and stationary spacetimes, geodesics, and tensor calculus to the field equations. A considerable strength of the book is the careful detailed examination of the local and global geometry of the major significant solutions of the equations: the Schwarzschild spacetime and its Kruskal extension, plane gravitational waves, de sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes, and Robertson-Walker cosmologies. The latter includes a clear presentation of the dust and radiation model dynamics for the variety of possible cases, a detailed examination of observational relations, and considered study of the properties of horizons. Linearized relativity is dealt with in depth leading to the standard weak field gravitational wave formulae and a study of their effects on test particles, together with a very useful discussion of the analogy between weak gravity and the electromagnetic field.
Thus this is a straightforward detailed presentation of both special and general relativity theory and their applications. It has many examples and is well suited as a text on these topics, giving a clear relativists' view all the way through. It does not go into astrophysical or particle physics aspects, which is fine given its focus. Personally I would have liked a bit more emphasis on the geodesic deviation equation on the one hand, and on holonomy (which provides a link into particle gauge theories) on the other. But that is a matter of taste. This is an excellent book, which can be highly recommended. Just one quibble: what on earth is the reason for the irritating blurred picture of Einstein on the cover? The whole point of the book is its clarity: why the implication of this picture that it presents a blurred vision?
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