Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity & Astrop

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Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity & Astrop posted by member7_php on 2/14/2009

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Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity & Astrophysics

Spring 2003

In this image taken by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, the bright dot near the center was seen to flicker and brighten dramatically for a few minutes. Many astronomers believe this provides additional evidence that a black hole does indeed reside at our Galaxy's center. (Image courtesy of F. Baganoff, MIT as presented on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day web site.)

Course Highlights

Can I see a black hole at all? If I can see it, what does a black hole look like? Does it look black? What does it feel like to fall toward a black hole? 8.224 Exploring Black Holes investigates these and many other questions using elementary calculus. The website includes assignments, exams, lecture notes, videos, and a description of the end-of-term collaborative research project.

Course Description

Study of physical effects in the vicinity of a black hole as a basis for understanding general relativity, astrophysics, and elements of cosmology. Extension to current developments in theory and observation. Energy and momentum in flat spacetime; the metric; curvature of spacetime near rotating and nonrotating centers of attraction; trajectories and orbits of particles and light; elementary models of the Cosmos. Weekly meetings include an evening seminar and recitation. The last third of the semester is reserved for collaborative research projects on topics such as the Global Positioning System, solar system tests of relativity, descending into a black hole, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, Gravity Probe B, and more advanced models of the Cosmos.

Special Features

Sample video lectures

Technical Requirements

RealOne™ Player software is required to run the .rm files found on this course site. Any number of development tools can be used to compile and run the .java files found on this course site. Please refer to the course materials for any specific instructions or recommendations. File decompression software, such as Winzip® or StuffIt®, is required to open the .zip files found on this course site. Java® Virtual Machine software (automatically installed in most major web browsers) is required to run the .class files found on this course site.

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Calendar

WEEK #	TOPICS	PRESENTER
1	Introduction to the Class	Edmund Bertschinger
2	The Universe: Questions You were Afraid to Ask	Edwin Taylor and Kristin Burgess
3	No Evening Seminar this Week, Just Recitation Section
4	Global Positioning System	Thomas Herring
5	Einstein's Field Equations	Edmund Bertschinger
6	Tracing Einstein's Development of the Special Relativity Theory	Gerald Holton
7	Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy --Sagittarius A*	Frederick K. Baganoff
8	X-Ray Binaries and the Search for Black Holes	Jeffrey McClintock
9	Review Prepare for mid-term exam. The test covers: EBH, Thorne, Handouts, Homework, Weekly Seminars
10	The Universe and Three Examples	Alan Guth
11	No Evening Seminar this Week, Just Recitation Section
12	LIGO: Detecting Gravitational Waves	Nergis Mavalvala
13	Cosmic Structure Formation; From Inflation to Galaxies	Edmund Bertschinger
14	Project Reports in Seminar; Project Reports in Recitation Section

Readings

Note: The readings from the Readings column refer to the following texts:

Edwin F. Taylor, and John Archibald Wheeler. Exploring Black Holes (EBH): Introduction to General Relativity. Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.

Thorne, Kip. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. W. W. Norton, 1994.

WEEK #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction to the Class	Thorne. "A Voyage Among the Holes." (Prologue)
2	The Universe: Questions you were afraid to ask	EBH. "Speeding." (Chap. 1) (Special relativity), "Curving." (Chap. 2) Pp. 2-24. Thorne. "The Relativity of Space and Time." (Chap. 1) Handout: Bertschinger. Coordinates and Proper Time.
3	Recitation	EBH. "Curving." (Chap. 2) Pp. 2-25 to the end. Project A: The Global Positioning System Thorne. "The Warping of Space and Time." (Chap. 2)
4	Global Positioning System	EBH. "Plunging." Thorne. "Black Holes Discovered and Rejected." (Chap. 3) Thorne. "The Mystery of the White Dwarfs." (Chap. 4) Handouts (not available online): Handout on Extremal Aging, Euler-Lagrange Equations, Hamilton's Principle
5	Einstein's Field Equations	EBH. "Orbiting." (Chap. 4) Thorne. "Implosion is Compulsory." (Chap. 5)
6	Tracing Einstein's Development of the Special Relativity Theory	EBH. "Seeing." (Chap. 5) Thorne. "Implosion to What?" (Chap. 6)
7	Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy -- Sagittarius A*	EBH. "Spinning Black Hole." Thorne. "The Golden Age." (Chap. 7)
8	X-Ray Binaries and the Search for Black Holes	Cosmology (New Project, replaces EBH Project G: Friedmann Universe) Thorne. "Serendipity." (Chap. 9)
9	Review prepare for Mid-term Exam. The test covers: EBH, Thorne, handouts, homework, weekly seminars
10	The Universe and Three Examples	Thorne. "The Search." (Chap. 8)
11	Recitation	Thorne. "Ripples of Curvature." (Chap. 10)
12	LIGO: Detecting Gravitational Waves	Thorne. "What is Reality?" (Chap. 11)
13	Cosmic Structure Formation; from Inflation to Galaxies	Thorne. "Black Holes Evaporate." (Chap. 12)
14	Project Reports in Seminar; Project Reports in Recitation Section

Related Resource

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)
WMAP is a NASA Explorer Mission that is currently measuring the temperature of the cosmic background radiation over the full sky with unprecedented accuracy. This map of the remnant heat of the Big Bang will provide answers to fundamental questions about the origin and fate of our universe. The next steps in cosmology will depend heavily on this and future data from this satellite.