Institute for Theoretical Physics University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106 carroll@ December 1997 Abstract These notes represent approximately one semester’s worth of lectures on introductory general relativity for beginning graduate students in physics. Topics include manifolds, Riemannian geometry, Einstein’s equations, and three applications: gravitational radiation, black holes, and cosmology. Individual chapters, and potentially updated versions, can be found at . NSF-ITP/97-147 gr-qc/9712019 .i Table of Contents 0. Introduction table of contents — preface — bibliography 1. Special Relativity and Flat Spacetime the spacetime interval — the metric — Lorentz transformations — spacetime diagrams — vectors — the tangent space — dual vectors — tensors —.
