Description
Book SynopsisA thorough and pedagogical introduction to special relativity suitable for anyone with a minimum of one year's university physics with calculus. It uses the most up to date formalism, and includes advanced topics such as higher dimensions, supersymmetry and string theory, making them accessible to the undergaduate physicist or engineer.
Trade Review'This well-written book will be extremely helpful for physics students who wish to go beyond what is most commonly taught and to delve more deeply into special relativity, for its own sake or as a starting point for understanding general relativity and gravitation. The authors treat many modern topics in addition to the classical material.' Professor Edward Witten, rinceton Institute for Advanced Study
'Patricia and John Schwarz have created an elegant book that uses special relativity to organize a sophisticated discussion of Maxwell theory, differential geometry, symmetry, and field dynamics. This book will reveal to the student the powerful tools that enhance our comprehension of physical theories.' Professor Barton Zwiebach, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
' … the book is well structured and organized, each treatment of a particular topic flowing nicely into the next … this is an ideal book for anyone wishing to obtain a good grounding in special relativity …'. Mathematics Today
'What is particularly commendable is the hands-on exercises in the earlier chapters that try to instil an intuitive feeling for the difficult concepts. … This book is ambitious in its scope to introduce concepts from differential geometry to a wide audience including second year undergraduates. … The book is particularly readable and anyone keen on being introduced to the concepts that have been influenced by special relativity will find this valuable.' Contemporary Physics
Table of ContentsPreface; Part I. Fundamentals: 1. From Pythagoras to spacetime geometry; 2. Light surprises everyone; 3. Elements of spacetime geometry; 4. Mechanics in spacetime; 5. Spacetime physics of fields; 6. Causality and relativity; Part II. Advanced Topics: 7. When quantum mechanics and relativity collide; 8. Group theory and relativity; 9. Supersymmetry and superspace; 10. Looking onward; Appendix 1. Where do equations of motion come from?; Appendix 2. Basic group theory; Appendix 3. Lie groups and Lie algebras; Appendix 4. The structure of super Lie algebras; References; Index.
