8.962 General Relativity (Spring 2020, MIT OCW): Lecture 14 - Linearized Gravity I: Principles and Static Limit

8.962 General Relativity

8.962 General Relativity (Spring 2020, MIT OCW). Instructor: Prof. Scott Hughes. 8.962 is MIT's graduate course in general relativity, which covers the basic principles of Einstein's general theory of relativity, differential geometry, experimental tests of general relativity, black holes, and cosmology. (from ocw.mit.edu)

Lecture 14 - Linearized Gravity I: Principles and Static Limit

Solving the Einstein field equation by linearizing around a flat background. We treat spacetime as the metric of special relativity plus a perturbation, examine how quantities transform infinitesimal coordinate transformations (which turn out to be equivalent to gauge transformations in electrodynamics), and develop the Einstein field equation in this limit. Focusing on static sources, we derive the Newtonian limit.

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introduction and the Geometric Viewpoint on Physics

Lecture 02 - Introduction to Tensors

Lecture 03 - Tensors (cont.)

Lecture 04 - Volumes and Volume Elements; Conservation Laws

Lecture 05 - The Stress Energy Tensor and the Christoffel Symbol

Lecture 06 - The Principle of Equivalence

Lecture 07 - The Principle of Equivalence (cont.); Parallel Transport

Lecture 08 - Lie Transport, Killing Vectors, Tensor Densities

Lecture 09 - Geodesics

Lecture 10 - Spacetime Curvature

Lecture 11 - More on Spacetime Curvature