January 8, 2006

Special Relativity, Physics 4146

Instructor

Professor Brian Kennedy
Office: Howey N119 (office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday after lecture)
Phone: (404) 894-5221

Course Assistant: Wei Zhang
Office: Howey N03 (office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 4.00-5.00 pm)
Phone: (404) 894-0534

E-mail: gtg978b at mail.gatech.edu

Place and Times

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:05-9:55am
Room N210, Howey Physics Building

Course Description

The course is designed to provide a thorough introduction to Special Relativity at the level of an advanced

undergraduate, or beginning graduate student.

A provisional syllabus is as follows:

Ether and Galilean relativity

Experimental Foundations (Michelson-Morley Experiment)

Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction

Work of Lorentz, Poincare and Einstein. The Lorentz Transformations.

Einstein’s axioms: relativity of simultaneity.

Geometry of Galilean relativity; Geometry of spacetime ( Minkowski )

And invariance of the interval.

Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction; Time dilation ( Larmor ).

Relativistic Kinematics:

Length contraction and Time dilation.

Twin Paradox.

Transformation of velocities and acceleration.

Relativistic Optics:

Drag effect (Laue), Doppler effect and Aberration.

Spacetime geometry and the introduction of four vectors/tensors.

Four-velocity and acceleration, wave motion.

Relativistic particle mechanics:

Momentum, mass and energy. Collisions.

Variational principle.

Electromagnetic phenomena: Maxwell’s equations.

Transformation of electric and magnetic fields. Motion of charges.

Relativistic Fluids.

Gravity: an introduction to General Relativity.

Textbook

Wolfgang Rindler, Introduction to Special Relativity (Oxford, 1991) is the required text for the course. I suggest that you read

the text carefully and try to test your comprehension on the problems.

Some other books you might find useful include:

• E.F. Taylor and J.A. Wheeler, Spacetime Physics, 2nd Edition Freeman 1992.
• A.P. French, Special Relativity, Norton 1968.
• Wolfgang Rindler, Relativity, Special, General and Cosmological, Oxford 2001.
• J.G. Taylor, Special Relativity, Oxford 1975.
• R. Hagedorn, Relativistic Kinematics , Benjamin 1963.
• H. Muirhead, The Special Theory of Relativity, Wiley 1973.
• R.P.Feynman, R.B.Leighton and M. Sands, The Feynman Lectures Volume 1 ( chapters 15-17), Addison Wesley 1963.
• W. Pauli, Theory of Relativity ( Parts1-3 ), Dover 1958.

In addition many textbooks on Mechanics and Electromagnetism, as well as General Relativity, have introductions to Special Relativity.

• A few of Einstein’s papers on Special and General Relativity ( and those of others ), in English translation, are to be found in :

• A.Einstein, H.Lorentz, H. Minkowski and H. Weyl The Principle of Relativity ( with notes by A. Sommerfeld ), Dover 1952.

• Two good introductions to General Relativity are

• J.B. Hartle, Gravity, an introduction to Einstein’s General Relativity, Addison Wesley 2003
• B.F. Schutz, A first course in General Relativity, Cambridge 1985.

Homework and Grades

In general you are expected to comply with the academic honor code.

Grades will based on the results of

Homework Assignments ( 25 %)

Midterm ( 25 % ),

Final exam ( 50% ).