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The book aims to expound the general theory of relativity with a mathematical point of view. Catering to the needs of postgraduate students and researchers in the field of astrophysics and mathematical physics, it offers the readers a comprehensive understanding of the advanced topics of the subject matter. It specifically discusses the mathematical foundation of tensor calculus, gives a background of geodesics, Einstein's field equations, linearised gravity, spacetime of spherically symmetric distribution of matter and black holes, and particle and photon orbits in spacetime. Apart from the formulation of general relativity, Lie derivatives and its applications, and causality of spacetime are also discussed in detail. Certain preliminary concepts of extrinsic curvature, Lagrangian formalism of general theory of relativity and 3 + 1 decomposition of space-time are covered and are provided in the book as appendices.

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

Explores the laws of general relativity. The contents of the book will attract both mathematicians and physicists which provides motivation and applications of many ideas and powerful mathematical methods of modern analysis and differential geometry.

The book aims to give a mathematical presentation of the theory of general relativity (that is, spacetime-geometry-based gravitation theory) to advanced undergraduate mathematics students. Mathematicians will find spacetime physics presented in the definition-theorem-proof format familiar to them. The given precise mathematical definitions of physical notions help avoiding pitfalls, especially in the context of spacetime physics describing phenomena that are counter-intuitive to everyday experiences.In the first part, the differential geometry of smooth manifolds, which is needed to present the spacetime-based gravitation theory, is developed from scratch. Here, many of the illustrating examples are the Lorentzian manifolds which later serve as spacetime models. This has the twofold purpose of making the physics forthcoming in the second part relatable, and the mathematics learnt in the first part less dry. The book uses the modern coordinate-free language of semi-Riemannian geometry. Nevertheless, to familiarise the reader with the useful tool of coordinates for computations, and to bridge the gap with the physics literature, the link to coordinates is made through exercises, and via frequent remarks on how the two languages are related.In the second part, the focus is on physics, covering essential material of the 20th century spacetime-based view of gravity: energy-momentum tensor field of matter, field equation, spacetime examples, Newtonian approximation, geodesics, tests of the theory, black holes, and cosmological models of the universe.Prior knowledge of differential geometry or physics is not assumed. The book is intended for self-study, and the solutions to the (over 200) exercises are included.

General relativity is a theory proposed by Einstein in 1915 as a unified theory of space, time and gravitation. It is based on and extends Newton's theory of gravitation as well as Newton's equations of motion. It is thus fundamentally rooted in classical mechanics. The theory can be seen as a development of Riemannian geometry, itself an extension of Gauss' intrinsic theory of curved surfaces in Euclidean space. The domain of application of the theory is astronomical systems. One of the mathematical methods analyzed and exploited in the present volume is an extension of Noether's fundamental principle connecting symmetries to conserved quantities. This is involved at a most elementary level in the very definition of the notion of hyperbolicity for an Euler-Lagrange system of partial differential equations. Another method, the study and systematic use of foliations by characteristic (null) hypersurfaces, is in the spirit of Roger Penrose's approach in his incompleteness theorem. The methods have applications beyond general relativity to problems in fluid mechanics and, more generally, to the mechanics and electrodynamics of continuous media. The book is intended for advanced students and researchers seeking an introduction to the methods and applications of general relativity.