GRAVITY, BLACK HOLES, AND THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE
CONTENTS BASIC IDEAS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY INADEQUACY OF SPECIAL RELATIVITY EINSTEIN’S PRINCIPLE OF EQUIVALENCE IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUIVALENCE THE BENDING OF A LIGHT BEAM GRAVITATIONAL SHIFT OF SPECTRAL LINES (GRAVITATIONAL REDSHIFT) THE CURVED SPACE-TIME CONCEPT THE PRINCIPLE OF GENERAL COVARIANCE DISTANCE AND TIME INTERVALS PROBLEMS REFERENCES CURVILINEAR COORDINATES AND GENERAL TENSORS CURVILINEAR COORDINATES PARALLEL DISPLACEMENT AND COVARIANT DIFFERENTIATION SYMMETRY PROPERTIES OF THE CHRISTOFFEL SYMBOLS CHRISTOFFEL SYMBOLS AND THE METRIC TENSOR GEODESICS THE STATIONARY PROPERTY OF GEODESICS THE CURVATURE TENSOR THE CONDITION FOR FLAT SPACE GEODESIC DEVIATION 210 LAWS OF PHYSICS IN CURVED SPACES 211 THE METRIC TENSOR AND THE CLASSICAL GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL 212 SOME USEFUL CALCULATION TOOLS 213 PROBLEMS EINSTEIN’S LAW OF GRAVITATION INTRODUCTION (SUMMARY OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES) A HEURISTIC DERIVATION OF EINSTEIN’S EQUATIONS VACUUM FIELD EQUATIONS FIELD EQUATIONS WHERE MATTER IS PRESENT IN SPACE ENERGY-MOMENTUM TENSOR GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION THE SCHWARZSCHILD SOLUTION THE SCHWARZSCHILD METRIC THE SCHWARZSCHILD SOLUTION OF THE VACUUM FIELD EQUATIONS SCHWARZSCHILD GEODESICS QUASIUNIFORM GRAVITATIONAL FIELD EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF EINSTEIN’S THEORY PRECESSION OF THE PERIHELION OF MERCURY DE?ECTION OF LIGHT RAYS IN A GRAVITATIONAL FIELD LIGHT RETARDATION (THE SHAPIRO EXPERIMENT) TEST OF GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION (HULSE-TAYLOR’S MEASUREMENT OF THE ORBITAL DECAY OF THE BINARY PULSAR PSR-1913+16) THE PHYSICS OF BLACK HOLES THE SCHWARZSCHILD BLACK HOLE INSIDE A BLACK HOLE HOW A BLACK HOLE MAY FORM THE KERR-NEWMAN BLACK HOLE ENERGY EXTRACTION FROM A ROTATING BLACK HOLE: THE PENROSE PROCESS THE AREA THEOREM ENERGY EXTRACTION FROM TWO COALESCING BLACK HOLES THERMODYNAMICS OF BLACK HOLES QUANTUM MECHANICS OF BLACK HOLES: HAWKING RADIATION THE DETECTION OF BLACK HOLES DETECTION OF STELLAR-MASS BLACK HOLES SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN THE CENTERS OF GALAXIES INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES HOW DO ELECTRICAL AND GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS GET OUT OF BLACK HOLES? BLACK HOLES AND PARTICLE PHYSICS 610 PROBLEMS INTRODUCTION TO COSMOLOGY INTRODUCTION THE DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN COSMOLOGICAL CONCEPTS ANCIENT GREECE THE RENAISSANCE OF COSMOLOGY NEWTON AND THE IN?NITE UNIVERSE NEWTON’S LAW OF GRAVITY AND A NONSTATIONARY UNIVERSE OLBERS’ PARADOX THE DISCOVERY OF THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE THE BIG BANG THE MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE FOR THE BIG BANG BIG BANG MODELS THE COSMIC FLUID AND FUNDAMENTAL OBSERVERS PROPERTIES OF THE ROBERTSON-WALKER METRIC COSMIC DYNAMICS AND FRIEDMANN’S EQUATIONS THE SOLUTIONS OF FRIEDMANN’S EQUATIONS FLAT MODEL (K = 0) CLOSED MODEL (K = 1) OPEN MODEL (K = ?1) DARK MATTER AND THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE THE BEGINNING, THE END, AND TIME’S ARROW AN ACCELERATING UNIVERSE? THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT PARTICLES, FORCES, AND UNI?CATION OF FORCES PARTICLES SPIN FERMIONS BOSONS HADRONS AND LEPTONS QUARKS QUARK COLORS QUARK CON?NEMENT FUNDAMENTAL INTERACTIONS AND CONSERVATION LAWS SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING UNI?CATION OF FORCES (INTERACTIONS) THE NEGATIVE VACUUM PRESSURE THE IN?ATIONARY UNIVERSE 101 THE FLATNESS PROBLEM 102 THE HORIZON PROBLEM 103 ALAN GUTH’S IN?ATIONARY THEORY 104 THE SUCCESSES OF GUTH’S IN?ATIONARY THEORY 1041 THE HORIZON PROBLEM RESOLVED 1042 THE FLATNESS PROBLEM RESOLVED 105 PROBLEMS WITH GUTH’S THEORY AND THE NEW IN?ATIONARY THEORY 106 PROBLEMS THE PHYSICS OF THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE 111 INTRODUCTION 112 COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION 1121 CONSERVATION OF PHOTON NUMBERS 1122 THE TRANSITION TEMPERATURE TT 1123 THE PHOTON-TO-BARYON RATIO 113 THE CREATION OF MATTER AND PHOTONS 114 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE 1141 THE PLANCK EPOCH 1142 THE GUTS ERA 1143 THE IN?ATIONARY ERA 1144 THE HADRON ERA 1145 THE LEPTON ERA 1146 THE NUCLEAR ERA 115 THE MYSTERY OF ANTIMATTER 116 THE DARK MATTER PROBLEM 117 THE PRIMORDIAL MAGNETIC FIELDS 118 PROBLEMS