PH4602: Introduction to Special Relativity

← All BTech Courses

Course Information

L-T-P-C3-0-0-3
Prerequisites None

Syllabus

Module 1: Newtonian Relativity

Lecture hours: 3 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Inertial frames, Galilean invariance, Michelson-Morley experiment and constancy of light .

Module 2: Principles of Special Relativity

Lecture hours: 6 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Postulates of relativity, Simultaneity, Concept of 4-vectors, Lorentz transformation .

Module 3: Relativistic Kinematics

Lecture hours: 8 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Proper time, proper length, time dilation/length contraction, Examples, some paradoxes, Doppler effect, Addition of velocities .

Module 4: Relativistic Dynamics

Lecture hours: 5 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Generalized momentum and force, Energy and mass relation .

Module 5: Geometry of Spacetime

Lecture hours: 4 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Spacetime diagrams, light cones, Spacelike intervals and timelike intervals .

Module 6: Electrodynamics Revisited

Lecture hours: 6 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Transformation of electric and magnetic fields, Maxwell's equations in 4-vector notation, 4-dimensional vector potential, Field of a point charge in uniform motion, Thomas precession .

Module 7: Lagrangian Formulation

Lecture hours: 5 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Formalism and uses, Lagrangian formulation for Newtonian mechanics, relativistic mechanics, and electrodynamics .

Study Materials

Textbooks

  1. Introduction to Special Relativity, Robert Resnick, , ISBN: 8126511001
  2. The Geometry of Spacetime, James J. Callahan, , ISBN: 0387986413

References

  1. Introduction to Electrodynamics, D. J. Griffiths, , ISBN: 978-9332550445
  2. Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, James B. Hartle, , ISBN: 9332535086
  3. Classical Electrodynamics, J. D. Jackson, , ISBN: 978-8126510948