Jerzy Plebański, Andrzej Krasiński: An introduction to general relativity and cosmology PDF20160203-22191-XT56B

Title	Jerzy Plebański, Andrzej Krasiński: An introduction to general relativity and cosmology
Author	Marco Bruni
Pages	4
File Size	43.4 KB
File Type	PDF20160203-22191-XT56B
Total Downloads	454
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Summary

Gen Relativ Gravit (2009) 41:445–448 DOI 10.1007/s10714-008-0726-1 BOOK REVIEW Jerzy Plebanski, ´ Andrzej Krasinski: ´ An introduction to general relativity and cosmology Cambridge University Press, 2006, 554p., GBP47.00, ISBN-10:0-521-85623-X, ISBN-13: 978-0-521-85623-2 Marco Bruni Received: 29 Apr...

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Gen Relativ Gravit (2009) 41:445–448 DOI 10.1007/s10714-008-0726-1 BOOK REVIEW Jerzy Pleba ´ nski, Andrzej Krasi ´ nski: An introduction to general relativity and cosmology Cambridge University Press, 2006, 554p., GBP47.00, ISBN-10:0-521-85623-X, ISBN-13: 978-0-521-85623-2 Marco Bruni Received: 29 April 2008 / Accepted: 29 April 2008 / Published online: 3 January 2009 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 This book results from the work of A. Krasi´ nski, building on a set of lecture notes by J. Pleba ´ nski introducing the mathematics of general relativity. These lectures—dating from 1964—are the basis of the frst part of the book. Pleba´nski agreed to co-author the book, but he did not see the fnal product, passing away shortly before the book was published. The author explicitly declares the scope of the book in the preface: the aim is that of writing a textbook presenting those results of general relativity and cosmological theory that are "most interesting from the point of view of a physicist", as opposed to an astrophysicist or a cosmologist. Obviously, what is considered most interest- ing is an entirely subjective matter and inevitably—although reasonably—Krasi´ nski focuses on his speciality—relativistic cosmology—in doing so relating to (and in a sense, preparing the reader for) his previous book [A. Krasi´ nski: Inhomogeneous Cos- mological Models, Cambridge University Press (1997)]. The author also recognizes in the preface that it is not possible "to present the whole of gravitation theory" in a single textbook, and in a fnal section he presents a list of the main subjects that were omitted, most notably—in my view—gravitational waves and the Cauchy problem. There are many ways to look at a new book that aims at establishing itself as a new introductory textbook in general relativity and cosmology: one is to judge the book against the goals the authors set for themselves. From this perspective, I believe that Krasi ´ nski has only partly reached his goal. Mind you, I think this is a very useful book, and it is indeed written as a textbook (more on this later). However, the question is whether a contemporary student seeing general relativity and cosmology for the frst time should go through the material introduced here, and whether there is anything M. Bruni (B) Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Mercantile House, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2EG, UK e-mail: [email protected] 123...