8.962 General Relativity (Spring 2020, MIT OCW): Lecture 23

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 23 - Black Holes II

Motion near black holes. Taking advantage of the symmetries of a black hole spacetime, we develop simple equations that describe orbits near black holes. We deduce the existence of an innermost stable orbit - any orbit that is set up inside this radius will either fall into the black hole or rocket out to infinity if slightly disturbed. We also examine the motion of light near these objects, showing that a "light ring" exists where light is bent into a circular orbit. This is closely related to black hole shadow that was observed by the Event Horizon Telescope.

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