PHYS 515 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Schedule
Lectures will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 13:00pm - 14:20pm in 222 Loomis Laboratory.
Recordings of the lectures will be posted on mediaspace.
Starting in week 2, homework sets will be available on this website on Tuesdays after the lecture. They are due the following Tuesday before 11:55 p.m. Central US and must be submitted online via my physics.
In general, you are allowed to use computer algebra software, like Maple, Mathematica, or Python, unless stated otherwise. If you use computer algebra software, together with your PDF solution, you must provide a well-formatted printout of your code. You are not allowed to use computer algebra packages, such as grTensor or xTensor (or similar), to calculate tensorial quantities.
If you have any issues logging in to view any of the secured documents below, please try adding "uofi\" (without the quotes) in front of your netid.
The lecture notes are included here for your convenience. However, they are not a replacement for a textbook! PLEASE DON'T SHARE THE LECTURE NOTES!
For details on semester dates, registration deadlines, etc. please check the Academic calendar.
| Week | Date | Lecture | Homework 1-hour paper review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue 08/27/2024 |
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| Thu 08/29/2024 |
L2. Special Relativity |
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| 2 | Tue 09/03/2024 |
L3. Lorentz transformations |
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| Thu 09/05/2024 |
L4. Vectors and 1-forms |
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| 3 | Tue 09/10/2024 |
L5. Tensors |
HW 1 due HW 2 assigned |
| Thu 09/12/2024 |
L6. Tensors |
paper review 1 due | |
| 4 | Tue 09/17/2024 |
L7. Physics in flat spacetimes |
HW 2 due HW 3 assigned |
| Thu 09/19/2024 |
L8. Manifolds |
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| 5 | Tue 09/24/2024 |
L9. Manifolds |
HW 3 due HW 4 assigned |
| Thu 09/26/2024 |
L10. Tensors in curved spacetimes |
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| 6 | Tue 10/01/2024 |
L11. Tensors in curved spacetimes |
HW 4 due HW 5 assigned |
| Thu 10/03/2024 |
L12.Covariant derivatives |
paper review 2 due | |
| 7 | Tue 10/08/2024 |
L13. Geodesics |
HW 5 due No homework assigned |
| Thu 10/10/2024 |
L14. Geodesics |
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| 8 | Tue 10/15/2024 | MIDTERM EXAM | No homework due HW 6 assigned |
| Thu 10/17/2024 |
L15. Riemann curvature |
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| 9 | Tue 10/22/2024 |
L16. Killing vectors |
HW 6 due HW 7 assigned |
| Thu 10/24/2024 |
L17. Symmetries |
paper review 3 due | |
| 10 | Tue 10/29/2024 |
L18. Einstein's equations |
HW 7 due HW 8 assigned |
| Thu 10/31/2024 |
L19. Lagrangian derivation of Einstein's equations |
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| 11 | Tue 11/05/2024 |
L20. Energy conditions |
HW 8 due HW 9 assigned |
| Thu 11/07/2024 |
L21. Schwarzschild metric and Birkhoff's theorem |
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| 12 | Tue 11/12/2024 |
L22. Geodesics of Schwarzchild |
HW 9 due HW 10 assigned |
| Thu 11/14/2024 |
L23. Stars in General Relativity |
paper review 4 due | |
| 13 | Tue 11/19/2024 |
L24. TOV equations and black holes |
HW 10 due HW 11 assigned |
| Thu 11/21/2024 |
L25. Black holes |
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| 14 | 11/23/2024 -- 12/01/2024 | Fall Break | |
| 15 | Tue 12/03/2024 |
L26. More about black holes Linearized Einstein's equations |
HW 11 due HW 12 assigned |
| Thu 12/05/2024 |
L27. Gravitational waves |
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| 16 | Tue 12/10/2024 |
L28. Cosmology |
HW 12 due |
| Thu 12/12/2024 | Reading Day | ||
| Fr 12/13/2024 -- Mo 12/16/2024 | Final Exam | ||