Classical fields: general relativity and gauge theory (Q2772110)

This book is based on lectures that have been given by the author at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook, New York and at Ben Gurion University. It covers a variety of topics in classical field theory. The main part of the book is concerned with certain aspects of general relativity. Especially, topics like spherically symmetric gravitational configurations are thoroughly discussed and sections on Kerr, Vaidya, Tolman, Einstein-Rosen, Papapetrou, Tomimatsu-Sato and NUT-Taub metrics are included. Also the equations of motion in general relativity are discussed in some detail. Here, the Einstein-Infeld-Hoffmann equations of slow motion are included and which can hardly be found in other textbooks. A formal similarity between Einstein gravity and Yang-Mills gauge theory is emphasized on the basis of spinor calculus. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe last two chapters of the book are devoted to the classification of gravitational and gauge fields in terms of the algebraic properties of their field strengths and gravity as a gauge theory. It contains the author's formulation of gravity as a \(\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) gauge theory. In an appendix the author discusses extended bodies in general relativity. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThis book on classical fields is complemented by many interesting problems. Most of these problems are discussed by the author himself but some fail to have an obvious solution and are left as an exercise to the reader.