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Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity & Astrophysics >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings

 
Note: The readings from the Readings column refer to the following texts:

Edwin F. Taylor, and John Archibald Wheeler. Exploring Black Holes (EBH): Introduction to General Relativity. Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.

Thorne, Kip. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. W. W. Norton, 1994.


WEEK #TOPICSREADINGS
1Introduction to the ClassThorne. "A Voyage Among the Holes." (Prologue)
2The Universe: Questions you were afraid to askEBH. "Speeding." (Chap. 1) (Special relativity), "Curving." (Chap. 2) Pp. 2-24.

Thorne. "The Relativity of Space and Time." (Chap. 1)

Handout:
Bertschinger. Coordinates and Proper Time.
3RecitationEBH. "Curving." (Chap. 2) Pp. 2-25 to the end.

Project A: The Global Positioning System

Thorne. "The Warping of Space and Time." (Chap. 2)
4Global Positioning System

EBH. "Plunging."

Thorne. "Black Holes Discovered and Rejected." (Chap. 3)

Thorne. "The Mystery of the White Dwarfs." (Chap. 4)

Handouts (not available online):
Handout on Extremal Aging, Euler-Lagrange Equations, Hamilton's Principle

5Einstein's Field EquationsEBH. "Orbiting." (Chap. 4)

Thorne. "Implosion is Compulsory." (Chap. 5)
6Tracing Einstein's Development of the Special Relativity TheoryEBH. "Seeing." (Chap. 5)

Thorne. "Implosion to What?" (Chap. 6)
7Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy -- Sagittarius A*EBH. "Spinning Black Hole."

Thorne. "The Golden Age." (Chap. 7)
8X-Ray Binaries and the Search for Black HolesCosmology (New Project, replaces EBH Project G: Friedmann Universe)

Thorne. "Serendipity." (Chap. 9)
9Review prepare for Mid-term Exam.
The test covers: EBH, Thorne, handouts, homework, weekly seminars
10The Universe and Three ExamplesThorne. "The Search." (Chap. 8)
11RecitationThorne. "Ripples of Curvature." (Chap. 10)
12LIGO: Detecting Gravitational WavesThorne. "What is Reality?" (Chap. 11)
13Cosmic Structure Formation; from Inflation to GalaxiesThorne. "Black Holes Evaporate." (Chap. 12)
14Project Reports in Seminar; Project Reports in Recitation Section



Related Resource

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 
WMAP is a NASA Explorer Mission that is currently measuring the temperature of the cosmic background radiation over the full sky with unprecedented accuracy. This map of the remnant heat of the Big Bang will provide answers to fundamental questions about the origin and fate of our universe. The next steps in cosmology will depend heavily on this and future data from this satellite.



 



 








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