A First Course in General Relativity

Tests of General Relativity: precession of perihelion of Mercury, bending of light, gravitational waves

This book provides an in-depth and accessible description of special relativity and quantum mechanics which together form the foundation of 21st century physics. A novel aspect is that symmetry is given its rightful prominence as an integral part of this foundation. The book offers not only a conceptual understanding of symmetry, but also the mathematical tools necessary for quantitative analysis. As such, it provides a valuable precursor to more focused, advanced books on special relativity or quantum mechanics.

This primer offers a concise introduction to Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG)
- a theoretical framework for uniting Quantum Mechanics (QM) with General Relativity (GR). The emphasis is on the physical aspects of the framework and its historical development in terms of self-dual variables, still most suited for a first, pedagogical encounter with LQG.