Feynman Lectures On Gravitation

by Feynman,Richard

• ISBN13: 9780813340388
• ISBN10: 0813340381
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-06-20
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

The Feynman Lectures on Gravitationare based on notes prepared during a course on gravitational physics that Richard Feynman taught at Caltech during the 1962-63 academic year. For several years prior to these lectures, Feynman thought long and hard about the fundamental problems in gravitational physics, yet he published very little. These lectures represent a useful record of his viewpoints and some of his insights into gravity and its application to cosmology, superstars, wormholes, and gravitational waves at that particular time. The lectures also contain a number of fascinating digressions and asides on the foundations of physics and other issues.Characteristically, Feynman took and untraditional non-geometric approach to gravitation and general relativity based on the underlying quantum aspects of gravity. Hence, these lectures contain a unique pedagogical account of the development of Einstein's general relativity as the inevitable result of the demand for a self-consistent theory of a massless spin-2 field (the graviton) coupled to the energy-momentum tensor of matter. This approach also demonstrates the intimate and fundamental connection between gauge invariance and the Principle of Equivalence.

Author Biography

Richard P. Feynman was raised in Far Rockaway, New York, and received his Ph.D. from Princeton. He held professorships at both Cornell and the California Institute of Technology. In 1965 he received the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics. He died in 1988. The late Richard P. Feynman was Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Feynman made many fundamental contributions to physics, particularly to the fields of quantum electrodynamics, quantum field theory, and particle physics. He is best known for the development of Feynman diagrams and path integrals. Feynman shared the Nobel prize in physics in 1965 for his work on quantum electrodynamics. The late Richard P. Feynman was Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Feynman made many fundamental contributions to physics, particularly to the fields of quantum electrodynamics, quantum field theory, and particle physics. He is best known for the development of Feynman diagrams and path integrals. Feynman shared the Nobel prize in physics in 1965 for his work on quantum electrodynamics. Brian Hatfield is co-founder and senior research physicist at AMP Research in Lexington, Massachusetts. He has help positions at the University of California, the University of Texas, and Harvard University. He received a Ph.D. in physics from Caltech. David Pines is research professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has made pioneering contributions to an understanding of many-body problems in condensed matter and nuclear physics, and to theoretical astrophysics. Editor of Perseus’ Frontiers in Physics series and former editor of American Physical Society’s Reviews of Modern Physics, Dr. Pines is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Pines has received a number of awards, including the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Contributions to Many-Body Theory; the P.A.M. Dirac Silver Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics; and the Friemann Prize in Condensed Matter Physics. David Pines is research professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has made pioneering contributions to an understanding of many-body problems in condensed matter and nuclear physics, and to theoretical astrophysics. Editor of Perseus’ Frontiers in Physics series and former editor of American Physical Society’s Reviews of Modern Physics, Dr. Pines is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Pines has received a number of awards, including the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Contributions to Many-Body Theory; the P.A.M. Dirac Silver Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics; and the Friemann Prize in Condensed Matter Physics. David Pines is research professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has made pioneering contributions to an understanding of many-body problems in condensed matter and nuclear physics, and to theoretical astrophysics. Editor of Perseus’ Frontiers in Physics series and former editor of American Physical Society’s Reviews of Modern Physics, Dr. Pines is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Pines has received a number of awards, including the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Contributions to Many-Body Theory; the P.A.M. Dirac Silver Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics; and the Friemann Prize in Condensed Matter Physics.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Quantum Gravity	xxxi
Lecture 1	1	(16)
A Field Approach to Gravitation	1	(2)
The Characteristics of Gravitational Phenomena	3	(7)
Quantum Effects in Gravitation	10	(1)
On the Philosophical Problems in Quantizing Macroscopic Objects	11	(4)
Gravitation as a Consequence of Other Fields	15	(2)
Lecture 2	17	(12)
Postulates of Statistical Mechanics	17	(5)
Difficulties of Speculative Theories	22	(1)
The Exchange of One Neutrino	23	(2)
The Exchange of Two Neutrinos	25	(4)
Lecture 3	29	(18)
The Spin of the Graviton	29	(2)
Amplitudes and Polarizations in Electrotiynamics, Our Typical Field Theory	31	(4)
Amplitudes for Exchange of a Graviton	35	(3)
Physical Interpretation of the Terms in the Amplitudes	38	(4)
The Lagrangian for the Gravitational Field	42	(1)
The Equations for the Gravitational Field	43	(1)
Definition of Symbols	44	(3)
Lecture 4	47	(16)
The Connection Between the Tensor Rank and the Sign of a Field	47	(2)
The Stress-Energy Tensor for Scalar Matter	49	(1)
Amplitudes for Scattering (Scalar Theory)	50	(2)
Detailed Properties of Plane Waves. Compton Effect	52	(2)
Nonlinear Diagrams for Gravitons	54	(2)
The Classical Equations of Motion of a Gravitating Particle	56	(3)
Orbital Motion of a Particle About a Star	59	(4)
Lecture 5	63	(14)
Planetary Orbits and the Precession of Mercury	63	(3)
Time Dilation in a Gravitational Field	66	(3)
Cosmological Effects of the Time Dilation. Mach's Principle	69	(2)
Mach's Principle in Quantum Mechanics	71	(3)
The Self Energy of the Gravitational Field	74	(3)
Lecture 6	77	(12)
The Bilinear Terms of the Stress-Energy Tensor	77	(4)
Formulation of a Theory Correct to All Orders	81	(1)
The Construction of Invariants with Respect to Infinitesimal Transformations	82	(3)
The Lagrangian of the Theory Correct to All Orders	85	(2)
The Einstein Equation for the Stress-Energy Tensor	87	(2)
Lecture 7	89	(18)
The Principle of Equivalence	89	(4)
Some Consequences of the Principle of Equivalence	93	(2)
Maximum Clock Rates in Gravity Fields	95	(2)
The Proper Time in General Coordinates	97	(2)
The Geometrical Interpretation of the Metric Tensor	99	(2)
Curvatures in Two and Four Dimensions	101	(2)
The Number of Quantities Invariant under General Transformations	103	(4)
Lecture 8	107	(16)
Transformations of Tensor Components in Nonorthogonal Coordinates	107	(3)
The Equations to Determine Invariants of gμν	110	(2)
On the Assumption that Space Is Truly Flat	112	(1)
On the Relations Between Different Approaches to Gravity Theory	113	(2)
The Curvatures as Referred to Tangent Spaces	115	(3)
The Curvatures Referred to Arbitrary Coordinates	118	(2)
Properties of the Grand Curvature Tensor	120	(3)
Lecture 9	123	(12)
Modifications of Electrodynamics Required by the Principle of Equivalence	123	(1)
Covariant Derivatives of Tensors	124	(3)
Parallel Displacement of a Vector	127	(5)
The Connection Between Curvatures and Matter	132	(3)
Lecture 10	135	(16)
The Field Equations of Gravity	135	(5)
The Action for Classical Particles in a Gravitational Field	140	(3)
The Action for Matter Fields in a Gravitational Field	143	(8)
Lecture 11	151	(12)
The Curvature in the Vicinity of a Spherical Star	151	(2)
On the Connection Between Matter and the Curvatures	153	(1)
The Schwarzschild Metric, the Field Outside a Spherical Star	154	(2)
The Schwarzschild Singularity	156	(3)
Speculations on the Wormhole Concept	159	(2)
Problems for Theoretical Investigations of the Wormholes	161	(2)
Lecture 12	163	(14)
Problems of Cosmology	163	(3)
Assumptions Leading to Cosmological Models	166	(3)
The Interpretation of the Cosmological Metric	169	(2)
The Measurements of Cosmological Distances	171	(2)
On the Characteristics of a Bounded or Open Universe	173	(4)
Lecture 13	177	(12)
On the Role of the Density of the Universe in Cosmology	177	(3)
On the Possibility of a Nonuniform and Nonspherical Universe	180	(1)
Disappearing Galaxies and Energy Conservation	181	(3)
Mach's Principle and Boundary Conditions	184	(2)
Mysteries in the Heavens	186	(3)
Lecture 14	189	(10)
The Problem of Superstars in General Relativity	189	(3)
The Significance of Solutions and their Parameters	192	(2)
Some Numerical Results	194	(2)
Projects and Conjectures for Future Investigations of Superstars	196	(3)
Lecture 15	199	(8)
The Physical Topology of the Schwarzschild Solutions	199	(2)
Particle Orbits in a Schwarzschild Field	201	(1)
On the Future of Geometrodynamics	202	(5)
Lecture 16	207	(14)
The Coupling Between Matter Fields and Gravity	207	(4)
Completion of the Theory: A Simple Example of Gravitational Radiation	211	(1)
Radiation of Gravitons with Particle Decays	212	(3)
Radiation of Gravitons with Particle Scattering	215	(3)
The Sources of Classical Gravitational Waves	218	(3)
Bibliography	221	(8)
Index	229