BOOKS
Spring 2009

Required Textbook:

• James B. Hartle, Gravity,
  Addison Wesley, 2003.
  An "examples first" introduction to general relativity, discussing applications of Einstein's equations before presenting the mathematics behind the equations.

Optional Textbooks:

• Edwin F. Taylor & John Archibald Wheeler, Exploring Black Holes,
  Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.
  An elementary introduction to the relativity of black holes, using line elements.
• Sean Carroll, Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity, Addison Wesley, 2004.
  An excellent traditional but somewhat sophisticated introduction to general relativity.

Books on Reserve:

The above texts, as well as the items below, are currently on reserve at the library.
A number of books on special relativity are also available in the library.

• Ray d'Inverno, Introducing Einstein's relativity,
  Oxford University Press, 1991.
  An excellent introduction to general relativity, which also covers some topics not usually seen in introductory texts.
• Bernard F. Schutz, A First Course In General Relativity,
  Cambridge University Press, 1985.
  A good, easy introduction to the basics of both tensors and general relativity.
• Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation,
  Freeman, San Fransisco, 1973.
  The physicist's bible of general relativity. Exhaustively complete.
• Robert M. Wald, General relativity,
  University of Chicago Press, 1984.
  The best available introduction to general relativity for advanced students, but uses sophisticated notation (which has become the standard for researchers in the field).
• Rainer K. Sachs, General relativity for mathematicians,
  Springer, New York, 1977.
  A very pure mathematical treatment of general relativity.
  Requires a strong background in differential geometry.
  (Historical footnote: Sachs was my major professor.)
• Richard L. Bishop & Samuel I. Goldberg, Tensor Analysis on Manifolds,
  Macmillan, New York, 1968; Dover, New York, 1980.
  A good reference for tensors.

Other Books:

A description of some books on differential forms and differential geometry can be found here.