HET605 Theories of Space & Time
Credit Points:12.5 Duration & Workload:
One semester, equivalent to a 5 contact hour per week lecture course Prerequisites:
HET603 Exploring Stars and the Milky Way, HET 604 Exploring Galaxies and the Cosmos (or equivalent) and introductory tertiary-level mathematics & physics (or equivalent) Aims:
This unit provides a general introduction to the theories of Special and General Relativity and to Cosmology.
Content:
- Galilean relativity
- The Michelson-Morley experiment
- Einstein's relativity postulates
- Lorentz transformations, length contraction and time dilation
- The space-time 4 vector, Minkowski diagrams
- Simultaneity and causality
- The relativistic Doppler effect; redshifts, relativistic momentum and energy
- Rest mass, mass-energy equivalence, the energy-momentum invariant
- General energy-momentum conservation law
- Relativistic collisions, gravitation and curvature of space
- Covariance and equivalence
- The cosmological principle
- Metrics and coordinates
- Tests of General Relativity
- Schwarzschild geometry and black holes
- Pre-relativistic cosmology
- Cosmological principles
- Olber's paradox
- The cosmic microwave background
- The Big Bang theory and nucleosynthesis
- Cosmology and particle physics, dark matter, galaxy formation
This unit will be presented in online delivery mode, with contact via newsgroup and email. Assessment Method:
Assessable newsgroup contributions, assignments and project. Textbooks:
For information about the textbook, follow this link