Relativity How are David Tong's Lectures on General Relativity?

[Haorong Wu]

Hi. I have tried David Tong's note on QFT. I think it works well for me and lead me into QFT. Now I am confident to read Peskin's book.

Now I am trying to learning GR. I planned to try David Tong's lectures on GR first and then read Sean Carroll's book. But I am not sure this plan now. I got lost in chapter 2, introducint differential geometry, in David Tong's lectures. It throws a lot of concepts I have never seen without sufficient examples, especially topics about Lie derivatives.

If you are familiar with Tong's notes, could you give me some advice that should I try other's notes, or just start with Sean Carroll's book?

Thanks!

 

[Vanadium 50]

I have not heard Tong, but I do know that seven months ago you were asking the most basic questions on SR. It is highly unlikely that you've progressed from there to studying GR on your own in that short a time.

 

[Haorong Wu]

I have not heard Tong, but I do know that seven months ago you were asking the most basic questions on SR. It is highly unlikely that you've progressed from there to studying GR on your own in that short a time.

Hi, @Vanadium 50 . I learned SR from Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths. I am not sure whether that is sufficient or not. But I think I can understand the main concepts of SR when I read books about QFT and papers about relativistic quantum optics.

I am going to be a graduate student two weeks later. Since my research area would include quantum optics in curved spacetimes, then I am going to take a GR course. Thus I wish to learn it before I take the course.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I'm not going to argue with you. On the one hand, you claim you can whip through SR with enough comprehension. On the other, you say you don't understand GR lectures.

 

[Dr Transport]

Hi, @Vanadium 50 . I learned SR from Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths. I am not sure whether that is sufficient or not.

Looking at my copy of Griffiths, I don't think that it is near enough preparation for a GR course and before you ask, I don't have anything handy to suggest.

 

[Demystifier]

I got lost in chapter 2, introducint differential geometry, in David Tong's lectures.

Tong introduces those concepts on a rather high level of abstraction, much higher than necessary for a first course in GR. Carroll is more down to Earth on this.