Physics 264    Spacetime and Black Holes

Instructor:  Savdeep Sethi

Textbook:  Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity  by James Hartle

Location & Time: KPTC 105, T Th 12:00-1:20

Office hours: T 4:30-5:30 (my office RI 270)
TA: Callum Quigley (RI 165)

Office hours: W 8-9 KPTC 303 or 305

Discussion Session: W 3:30

This course will serve as an introduction to general relativity and the physics of black holes.


Midterm Exam Nov 4 in class.

Final: Dec 9, KPTC 105, 10:30-12:30.

Tentative Syllabus
Problem Sets

Assignment 1

Solutions 1

Assignment 2

Solutions 2

Assignment 3

Solutions 3

Assignment 4

Solutions 4

Midterm Solutions

Assignment 5

Solutions 5

Assignment 6

Solutions 6

Assignment 7

Solutions 7


References & Additional Sources

There are lots of good books on this topic ranging from popular science to textbook level. Here
are a few that look interesting:

A First Course in General Relativity by Bernard Schutz
An Introduction to Relativity by Jayant Narlikar
Spacetime and Geometry by Sean Carroll
General Relativity by Robert Wald (somewhat higher level text)

At a more popular science level:

Space, Time, and Gravity by Robert Wald
Black Holes & Time Warps by Kip Thorne 

Visualizing Mobius transformations: a very nice video found by Tae Yeon Yoo here.