Cota v1) Pox AN INTRODUCTION TO EINSTEIN'S GENERAL RELATIVITY James B. Hartle“This is an excellent introction to general relativity witha hands-on appmoech tha is base on phsialsitvations of interes lik lack holes and the expanding universe. It fills ral gap inthe iterature foram undergraduate or graduate stent coursebook” Sopher Hang, University of Cambridge the best elementary introduction to general relay ever writen t brings reat fullywidhin the grasp of undergraduates and shou trigger cretion of general relativity courses at colle and universities sound the wold ‘Kip. Thorne, Caltech aulbor of “Black Holes and Time Wap: ‘Binsin’ Outrageous Legacy “vale rings the beau and excemen of eave gration tothe appt undergrad lv vit emarabiy ace drop He uses may more amar cone o proce x bod understanding af he base sre and sptions fhe thon The apy s emarkably effective.” abet Magoner, Sanford rivers aris an established master ofthe fil and his competence assures that this books authoritative. The book provides a striking combination ‘of elasical general relativity theory and the atest modem observational resus” abo F Tylor, Masachusots institute of Toco 2 tely novel approach, With Hat's presentation ray is mor than dy mathemati; ned, ts an ean, crn, an inl wran sujet that central to mary ofthe ast intriguing questions in physics and astrophysics today: Mar: Kanon, Caloris haste of Tcnalegy This book shoud appeal w ane generation of phys. Nines anevellent eve af pial clay and proves unified Someta ‘proach to th SR and GR." Hans jergen Weber, Unicesiy of Virginia Pleas vit us at wow aw.comy/physics for more information. Tp ont any of our prods, contact our enstomer service department at (800) 824-7 (201) 767-5021 cuts ofthe US, oF visit your campus bookstore A “physics first” approach to Einstein's general relativity Einstein's theory of general relativity is comerstone of modem physics It embraces a wealth of frontier scientific topics including curved spacetime, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology, General relativity is increasingly central to contemporary physics and astronomy and therefore to an undergraduate physics education, The aim ofthis ground-breaking new text isto ‘make this fundamental theory accesible to undergraduate students, Using a “physics frst” approach, a minimum of new mathematics, and a wealth of applications, renowned relaivst James Hartle provides fluent and accessible introduction for physicists and others interested in this central achievement of moder science, ‘very fine book by leading expert. By omoentrating on physical ideas and th very atest bseretonal eis, Hate achiews his admirable aim of making general eat acesle witout rdying on daunting ir ibesvetin 1 bck ety sri theta at erp: student should poses.” Jonathan altel, mperial College, London Profesor Hae tobe commend for wing such a fine and much ‘ede inroductory book on general relativity With the right balanoe of physical ideas and mathematical details delivered ina clears, his Wil be a weleome text.” Bei Lok Hu, Oniverty of Maryland “This book should make a major impact in undergraduate education Its far clearer and more physically motivating than other texts. The ‘epostion i at precisely the right lee. and clear worked examples and good problems make it especially useful” ‘Michael Hobson, University of Cambridge for decades general relativity as langely been the purview of raduate students. Hare's new book promises to change that. It provides an admirable overview of oe of psc’ most beutiful and increasingly relevant theories and canbe understood with only a fist mechanics clas asa prerequiste. should persuade many phys, ‘departments to ofer general eatiity aa routine part ofthe under graduate curiculum. Artur Koso, Rudge University “the ideal text for ....an introductory course, In no other single text fe Founda the up in date martha der phys sold knw abut git the same tines an excel ss for more advanced stu Die Bril, Crees of Marland ISBN 0-8053-8LL2-9 | | | oli7a0805! 386622IMPORTANT SPACETIMES (geometrized units) Flat Spacetime Cartesian Coordinates nopdx"dx® Spatial Spherical Polar Coordinates ds? = —d? + dr? +°d0? +r? sin? ade? Static, Weak Field Metric ds? = (1+ 20(x')) dP + (1 = 20) dx? + dy? +2), (OO) KD). Schwarzschild Geometry Schwarzschild Coordinates 2M Nraitsrs eae ieee tarts at =—(1 )aee(1- ) a + Pao? + sin? 946?) Eddington-Finkelstein Coordinates 2M) | 5 249? asin? pag? —(1- ==) dv? + 2dudr + r?(de? + sin? ode?) r IM? ri 2 2 pale? Se 2M (dv? + dU?) + (a6? + sin? ode?) Kruskal-Szekeres Coordinates Kerr Geometry where a=J/M, p> =r 4a° cos? 6, —2Mr+a?jearized Plane Gravitational Wave ds? = —dt? + dx? + dy? + dz? + hapdx*dx® where (rows and columns in, x, ¥. 2 order) 0 0 fell) felt 2) ft) —fet—2) 0 0 0 0, rapt. for a wave propagating in the z-direction, Friedman-Robertson—-Walker Cosmological Models sin? x closed sna? +a) | dx? +4 x? (a6 + sin? odg?) | , flat sinh? x open k= 41, closed seo]. k=0, flat k=—1, open +P 0 nak 4a) [ THE GEODESIC EQUATION ‘¢ Lagrangian for the Geodesic Equation of a test particle dx® dx® dxb\'? 12,22) = (tap 2 (ae) = (-en0oe Se) where o is an arbitrary parameter along the world line x* = x%(c) of the geodesic. * Geodesic equation for a test particle (coordinate basis) dx dx? dx¥ due 7 du pw af fy ae ae ae where z is the proper time along the geodesic and u* = dx‘ /dr are the coordinate basis components of the four-velocity so that uu = —1. The Christoffel symbols If, follow from Lagrange’s equations or from the general formula (8.19). The geodesic equation for light rays takes the same form with t replaced by an affine parameter and u-u = 0. © Conserved Quantities de &-u= constant where £ is a Killing vector,e.g..£ = (0, 1, 0, 0) ina coordinate basis where the metric gap (x) is independent ofx!GRAVITY An Introduction to Einstein’s General Relativity James B. Hartle University of California, Santa Barbara San Prancisco Boston New York Capetown Hong Kong London Madrid Mexico City Montreal Munich Paris Singapore Sydney Tokyo TorontoAcquisitions Editor: Adam Black Project Editor: Nancy Benton Production Editor: Joan Marsh ‘Tent Designer: Leslie Galen Cover Designer: Blakeley Kim Marketing Manager: Christy Lawrence Manufacturing Coordinator: Vivian McDougal Project Coordination and Electronic Page Makeup: Integre Technical Pub Ilustration: Scientific Mlustrators Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Addison Wesley, 1301 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94111. All rights reserved, Manufactured in the United States of America, This publication is protected by Copyright and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage ina retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any ‘mcans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying. recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use ‘material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc, Permissions Department, 1900 E. Lake Ave., Glenview, IL 60025. For information regarding permissions, call Ba71aR6(2635, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harte, J.B. Games B.) Gravity : an introduction to Einstein’s general relativity /James Harte. Pp. om. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8053-8662-9 1.General relativity (Physics) 1. Tide QC173.6 1438 2003 530.11 —de2 2002151118 A Ad BGO tN Wesley 67 8 9 10 —MAL— 09 08 07 06 ‘wwwwaw.comfaweTo Mary JoContents Preface xv PART I Ml SPACE AND TIME IN NEWTONIAN PHYSICS AND SPECIAL RELATIVITY 1 1 Ml Gravitational Physics 3 2 ml Geometry as Physics 13 2.1 Gravity Is Geometry 13 2.2 Experiments in Geometry 15 23. Different Geometries 18 2.4 Specifying Geometry 20 2.5 Coordinates and Line Element 21 2.6 Coordinates and Invariance 27 3 Ml Space, Time, and Gravity in Newtonian Physics 31 3.1 Inertial Frames 31 3.2. The Principle of Relativity 36 3.3. Newtonian Gravity 38 3.4 Gravitational and Inertial Mass 41 3.5. Variational Principle for Newtonian Mechanics 42 4 Principles of Special Relativity 47 4.1 The Addition of Velocities and the Michelson-Morley Experiment 47 4.2 Einstein’s Resolution and Its Consequences 49 43 Spacetime 52 4.4 — Time Dilation and the Twin Paradox 60 4.5 Lorentz Boosts 65 46 Units 71vi Contents 5 Ml Special Relativistic Mechat 77 5.1 Four-Vectors 77 5.2 Special Relativistic Kinematics 82 5.3. Special Relativistic Dynamics 85 5.4 Variational Principle for Free Particle Motion 89 5.5 LightRays 91 5.6 Observers and Observations 95 PART II Ml THE CURVED SPACETIMES OF GENERAL RELATIVITY 105 6 & Gravity as Geometry 107 6.1 Testing the Equality of Gravitational and Inertial | Mass 107 6.2 The Equivalence Principle 110 6.3 Clocks in a Gravitational Field 113 6.4 The Global Positioning System 121 65 Spacetime Is Curved 125 6.6 Newtonian Gravity in Spacetime Terms 126 7 Mi The Description of Curved Spacetime 135 7.1 Coordinates 135 7.2 Metric 138 7.3 The Summation Convention 138 7.4 Local Inertial Frames 140 7.5 Light Cones and World Lines 142 7.6 Length, Area, Volume, and Four-Volume for Diagonal Metrics 146 7.7 Embedding Diagrams and Wormholes 148 7.8 — Vectors in Curved Spacetime 152 7.9 Three-Dimensional Surfaces in Four-Dimensional Spacetime 158 8 Ml Geodesics 169 8 82 83 84 The Geodesic Equation 169 Solving the Geodesic Equation—Symmetries and Conservation Laws 175 Null Geodesics 178 Local Inertial Frames and Freely Falling Frames 179Contents 9 @ The Geometry Outside a Spherical Star 186 9.1 Schwarzschild Geometry 186 9.2 The Gravitational Redshift 189 9.3 Particle Orbits—Precession of the Perihelion 191 9.4” Light Ray Orbits—The Deflection and Time Delay of Light 204 10 Ml Solar System Tests of General Rela! 10.1 Gravitational Redshift 219 10.2. PPN Parameters 221 10.3 Measurements of the PPN Parameter y 223 10.4 Measurement of the PPN Parameter 6—Precession of Mercury's Perihelion 230 ity 219 11 Mf Relativistic Gravity in Action 234 11.1 Gravitational Lensing 234 11.2 Accretion Disks Around Compact Objects 244 113. Binary Pulsars 250 12 Ml Gravitational Collapse and Black Holes 255 12.1 The Schwarzschild Black Hole 256 12.2 Collapse toa Black Hole 262 12.3 Kruskal-Szekeres Coordinates 269 12.4 Nonspherical Gravitational Collapse 275 13 Mf Astrophysical Black Holes 281 13.1. Black Holes in X-Ray Binaries 282 13.2. Black Holes in Galaxy Centers 285 13.3 Quantum Evaporation of Black Holes—Hawking Radiation 289 14 BA Little Rotation 296 14.1 Rotational Dragging of Inertial Frames 296 14.2 Gyroscopes in Curved Spacetime 297 14.3 Geodetic Precession 298 14.4 Spacetime Outside a Slowly Rotating Spherical Body 302 14.5 Gyroscopes in the Spacetime of a Slowly Rotating Body 303 14.6 Gyros and Freely Falling Frames 308Contents 15 Ml Rotating Black Holes 310 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Cosmic Censorship 310 ‘The Kerr Geometry 311 The Horizon of a Rotating Black Hole 313 Orbits in the Equatorial Plane 316 The Ergosphere 322 16 Ml Gravitational Waves 331 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 17 Ml The U Wd 172 173 A Linearized Gravitational Wave 332 Detecting Gravitational Waves 333 Gravitational Wave Polarization 336 Gravitational Wave Interferometers 339 ‘The Energy in Gravitational Waves 342 erse Observed 347 ‘The Composition of the Universe 347 ‘The Expanding Universe 352 Mapping the Universe 360 18 Ml Cosmological Models 366 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 19 Mf Which Universe and Wh’ 19.1 19.2 Homogeneous, Isotropic Spacetimes 366 ‘The Cosmological Redshift 368 ‘Matter, Radiation, and Vacuum 372 Evolution of the Flat FRW Models 376 ‘The Big Bang and Age and Size of the Universe 380 Spatially Curved Robertson—Walker Metrics 384 Dynamics of the Universe 387 400 Surveying the Universe 402 Explaining the Universe 410 PART III Mf THE EINSTEIN EQUATION 417 20 A Little More Math 419 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Vectors 419 Dual Vectors 421 Tensors 427 The Covariant Derivative 430 Freely Falling Frames Again 440Contents 21 M Curvature and the Einstein Equation 445 21.1 Tidal Gravitational Forces 445 21.2 Equation of Geodesic Deviation 450 21.3. Riemann Curvature 454 21.4 The Binstein Equation in Vacuum 456 21.5 Linearized Gravity 459 22 Mf The Source of Curvature 471 22.1 Densities 471 22.2 Conservation 478 22.2 Conservation of Energy-Momentum 478 22.3. The Einstein Equation 482 22.4 The Newtonian Limit 485 23 Ml Gravitational Wave Emission 491 23.1 ‘The Linearized Einstein Equation with Sources 491 23.2 Solving the Wave Equation with a Source 493 23.3. The General Solution of Linearized Gravity 496 23.4 Production of Weak Gravitational Waves 498 23.5 Gravitational Radiation from Binary Stars 502 23.6 The Quadrupole Formula for the Energy Loss in Gravitational Waves 506 23.7 _ Effects of Gravitational Radiation Detected in a Binary Pulsar 508 23.8 Strong Source Expectations 510 24 M@ Relativistic Stars 515 24.1. The Power of the Pauli Principle 516 24.2 Relativistic Hydrostatic Equilibrium = 520 24.3 Stellar Models 523 244 Matter in Its Ground State 524 24.5 Stability 528 24.6 Bounds on the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars 535 APPENDIXES 541 Units in General 541 Units Employed in this Book 542 B M@ Curvature Quantities 545 xixiv Boxes 15.1 wl 18.1 18.2 19.1 192 20.1 201 24.1 24.2 Tapping the Rotational Energy of a Black Hole 326 Distance Scales in Cosmology 353 ‘The Thermal History of the Universe 375 What Came Before the Big Bang? 381 Big Bang Nucleosynthesis 400 A Mechanism for Inflation 412 Gradient, Divergence, and Curl 437 Tides from Tidal Forces 448 ‘The Ground State of Matter 526 Pulsars 534Preface Einstein's relativistic theory of gravitation—general relativity—will shortly be a century old. At its core is one of the most beautiful and revolutionary conceptions ‘of modern science—the idea that gravity is the geometry of four-dimensional curved spacetime. Together with quantum theory, general relativity is one of the ‘two most profound developments of twentieth-century physics. General relativity has been accurately tested in the solar system. It underlies our understanding of the universe on the largest distance scales, and is central to the explanation of such frontier astrophysical phenomena as gravitational col- lapse, black holes, X-ray sources, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, gravita- tional waves, and the big bang. General relativity is the intellectual origin of many ideas in contemporary elementary particle physics and is a necessary prerequisite to understanding theories of the unification of all forces such as string theory. ‘An introduction to this subject, so basic, so well established, so central to sev- eral branches of physics, and so interesting to the lay public is naturally a part of the education of every undergraduate physics major. Yet teaching general rel- ativity at an undergraduate level confronts a basic problem. The logical order of teaching this subject (as for most others) is to assemble the necessary mathemati- ‘cal tools, motivate the basic defining equations, solve the equations, and apply the solutions to physically interesting circumstances. Developing the tools of differ- ential geometry, introducing the Einstein equation, and solving it is an elegant and satisfying story. But it can also be a long one, too long in fact to cover both that and introduce the many contemporary applications in the time that is typically available for an introductory undergraduate course. Gravity introduces general relativity in a different order. The principles on which it is based are discussed at greater length in Appendix D, but essentially the strategy is the following: The simplest physically relevant solutions of the Einstein equation are presented first, without derivation, as spacetimes whose ob- servational consequences are to be explored by the study of the motion of test particles and light rays in them. This brings the student to the physical phenom- ena as quickly as possible. It is the part of the subject most directly connected to classical mechanics, and requires the minimum of new mathematical ideas. The Einstein equation is introduced later and solved to show how these geometries originate. A course for junior or senior level physics students based on these principles and the first two parts of this book has been part of the undergraduate curriculum at the University of California, Santa Barbara for over twenty-five years. It works.