Part III General Relativity

Lecture 1
Graham Van Goffrier
October 5, 2018

1 Resources
Carroll – Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity
Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler – Gravitation
Wald – General Relativity
Zee – Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell
Hawking, Ellis – The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime

2 Special Relativity
Minkowski spacetime:
Spatial coordinates in R3 – Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z)
Line element ds2 = −dt2 + dx2 + dy 2 + dz 2
ds is the proper distance between x and dx, y and dy ...
Units such that c = 1
Usually written as

ds2 = ηab dxa dxb (1)

2 2
If ds > 0 spacelike separation, ds < 0 timelike separation.
|ds| = dτ proper time interval
The chronological future of p is the set of all points that can be reached from p
along future directed timelike lines: I + (p). Similarly chronological past I − (p).
Causal future of p, set of all points that can be reached from p along future
directed timelike or null lines: J + (p). J is the closure of I.

Let xa (τ ) be a curve in spacetime; we can construct tangent vectors to this

curve:
dxa
ua = (2)
dτ

1
Timlike curves have:
ua ub ηab = −1 (3)
Proper time interval: what a clock will actually measure expressed as an integral:
Z q
dτ = ∆τ (4)
p

Symmetries, looking at (1) we see that the measure ds2 is invariant under rota-
tions in R3

Lorentz transformations involve time also, but should preserve the invariant
interval via O(3,1):
ΛT ηΛ = η (5)
This is analagous in Euclidean space to O(3):
RT δR = δ (6)

To take a Lorentz transformation in the x-direction, we can compute directly:

t − vx
t → t0 = √
1 − v2
x − vt
x → x0 = √
1 − v2
(7)
Can then achieve a general lorentz transformation by rotating: R−1 Λx R = ΛR .
These transformations form a group: identity, unique inverse for each element
since detΛ 6= 0, closure under composition by ΛT2 ΛT1 ηΛ1 Λ2 = η, and lastly as-
sociative as a result of the associativity of matrix multiplication.

Λ can include the possibility of reflections in time or in space, but often it is

convenient to ignore these and consider only the ”proper orthochronous Lorentz
group”.
The Poincaré group is the semi-direct product of Lorentz transformations and
translations.
Usually we prefer to use index notation, i.e.:
Translations: xa → x0a = xa + ∆xa
Lorentz transformations: (ΛT )ca ηcd Λdb = ηab

We can now explicitly define a contravariant (upstairs) vector by its trans-

formation property. Then the corresponding covariant vector is given by:
ua = ηab ub (8)
To raise an index we will need to construct the inverse of η:
η ab ηbc = δca (9)

2
 ub = η ba ua (10)
Lorentz transformation of a contravariant vector proceeds as follows:

ua → u0a = Λab ub (11)

In matrix notation:  
γ −γv 0 0
a
−γv γ 0 0
Λb = 
 0
 (12)
0 1 0
0 0 0 1

How to define a scalar? It is something which is invariant under a Lorentz

transformation, such as Φ = Wa V a :

Φ0 = Wa0 V 0a = Wa0 Λab V b = Φ (13)

from which we see how covariant vectors must transform.

Tensors of type (r,s) transform as follows under a Lorentz transformation:

0a0 ...a0 a0 a0
Tba1i...b
...ar
s
→ Tb0 ...b
i
0
r
= Λa11 ...Λarr Λbb10 ...Λbbs0 Tba1i...b
...ar
s
(14)
1 s 1 s

3 Homework
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