Suggest some good introductory textbooks on GR

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around recommendations for introductory textbooks on General Relativity (GR) suitable for graduate-level students. Participants share various titles and authors, discussing their suitability and content focus.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests consulting a booklist that categorizes various texts on GR.
  • Another participant recommends Ray Inverno's "Introducing Einstein's Relativity" as a suitable introductory text that covers basics up to cosmological models and charged black holes.
  • Some participants mention that the previously suggested booklist has not been updated recently and highlight the inclusion of more recent works by James Hartle and Sean Carroll.
  • One participant argues against recommending Hartle, Carroll, and Wald, suggesting that they may not align with the OP's request for graduate-level introductory texts, while proposing Dirac's shorter work as a better fit.
  • Another participant counters that Carroll's book is intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, while Wald's text is also considered graduate-level.
  • A graduate student shares their experience learning GR from both d'Inverno and Carroll, also mentioning Gerard 't Hooft's contributions and available lecture notes.
  • One participant suggests "An Introduction to Cosmology" by Jayant Narlikar as a good introductory book that explains standard theory while being open to alternative interpretations of cosmological data.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing opinions on which textbooks are appropriate for the OP's request, with some advocating for specific authors and titles while others challenge those suggestions. No consensus is reached regarding the best introductory texts.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note that the suitability of certain texts may depend on the reader's background in differential geometry and the specific focus of the books, indicating a variety of assumptions about prior knowledge.

TensorKhan
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Hello,

I was wondering if any of you can suggest some good introductory textbooks on GR around the graduate level. Thank you for your time.

Yours Truly,

TK.
 
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Students at KUL learn GR following Ray Inverno's "Introducing Einstein's Relativity"...Elementary book.Covers the basics up until cosmological models & charged BH.

Daniel.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
No offense,but he (the OP) specifically said "good introductory textbooks on GR around the graduate level".Let's not go to Hartle,Carroll & Wald.

Dirac's 70 pages book is perfect for getting to know GR without diff.geom...

Field theorists such as Pauli,Feynman & Weinberg wrote good books on GR,too.

Daniel.
 
dextercioby said:
No offense,but he (the OP) specifically said "good introductory textbooks on GR around the graduate level".Let's not go to Hartle,Carroll & Wald.
Well, you're right that Hartle's seems to be aimed at undergrads, but Carroll's is supposed to be for "advanced undergraduates and graduate students" (the notes the book was based on were from a graduate-level course), and Wald's also seems to be graduate-level according to https://www.physicsforums.com/archive/topic/t-42161_Books_in_general_relativity?.html .
 
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I'm a graduate student, and i learned GR from d'Inverno, but also from the text of Sean Carroll, which is very good! And ofcourse, being a dutch student, Gerard 't Hooft also wrote a nice introductory. You can find his lecture notes on the site of his university (at utrecht )
 
Do you want a good introductory book that explains the standard theory with plenty of examples, and then is also open to heterodox interpretations of the cosmological data? Try "An Introduction to Cosmology" (3rd Ed.) Jayant Narlikar CUP 2002 (1st Ed.) ISBN 0 521 79028X

Garth
 
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