Introduction to Tensor Calculus for General Relativity

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Physics Physics Spring 1999. Introduction to Tensor Calculus for General Relativity c 1999 Edmund Bertschinger. All rights reserved. 1 Introduction There are three essential ideas underlying General Relativity (GR). The first is that space- time may be described as a curved, four- dimensional mathematical structure called a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. In brief, time and space together comprise a curved four- dimensional non-Euclidean geometry. Consequently, the practitioner of GR must be familiar with the fundamental geometrical properties of curved spacetime. In particu- lar, the laws of physics must be expressed in a form that is valid independently of any coordinate system used to label points in spacetime.

1 Introduction There are three essential ideas underlying general relativity (GR). The first is that space-time may be described as a curved, four-dimensional mathematical structure called a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. In brief, time and space together comprise a curved four-dimensional non-Euclidean geometry.

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