PHYS 565: General Relativity (Winter 2026)
M W 1:30-3:00pm PAA A110
Instructor: Silas Beane B457 OH: TBD, Zmeet by appt
TA: Andrea Paolini B426 OH: TBD
Subject matter
General relativity. Topics will include interior solutions to Einstein equations, gravitational waves, Schwarzschild black hole, Penrose diagrams, Robertson-Walker metric, de Sitter and anti-de Sitter space.
Prerequisites
PHYS 564 or equivalent. Note that this is an advanced graduate course in physics.
Main resources
My favorite text which will guide the course spiritually is:
Gravitation and Cosmology, S. Weinberg
This text is somewhat dated and compact. Fortunately, there is an excellent, modern, and encyclopaedic online text by Matthias Blau, which fills
in many details in Weinberg's text and provides many more useful and topical additions:
http://www.blau.itp.unibe.ch/GRLecturenotes.html
I will be using my own lecture notes compiled from many sources (including those listed below), but primarily Weinberg and Blau.
I will scan my lecture notes and make them available (note: "your mileage may vary"). In the "suggested reading" column of the calendar
below, I will indicate relevant sections of various texts, including Carroll (as this seems to be a favorite of many).
Other useful resources
Lecture notes:
Introduction to General Relativity, G. 't Hooft
An advanced course in General Relativity, E. Poisson
Advanced texts:
General Relativity, R. Wald
Gravitation, C.W. Misner, K.S. Thorne, J.A. Wheeler
Intermediate texts:
Introduction to General Relativity, L. Ryder
Spacetime and Geometry, S.M. Carroll
Introductory texts:
Gravity. An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, J. Hartle
A First Course in General Relativity, B. Schutz
Homework, exams and grades
Your grade for this course will be based on the homework (homework assignments and solutions are posted on Canvas under Files), which will be assigned approximately once a week. I encourage you to work on the homework in groups. However, the work that you hand in must be your own, and you must list your collaborators --including artificial intelligences-- on your manuscript as well as any references you have used.
Religious Accommodations
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
Calendar