0387256431

This book offers an alternative to other textbooks on the subject, providing a more specific discussion of numerous general relativistic effects for readers who have knowledge of classical mechanics and electrodynamics, including special relativity. Coverage includes gravitational lensing, signal retardation in the gravitational field of the Sun, the Reissner-Nordström solution, selected spin effects, the resonance transformation of an electromagnetic wave into a gravitational one, and the entropy and temperature of black holes. The book includes numerous problems at various levels of difficulty, making it ideal also for independent study by a broad readership of advanced students and researchers.