Open Questions: Relativity and Gravitation

Open Questions:
Relativity and Gravitation

Black holes

The cosmological constant

Gravitational waves

Wormholes

Quantum gravity

Tests of relativity and gravity

Alternative theories of gravity

Why is gravity so weak?

Recommended references: Web sites

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Recommended references: Books

Recommended references: Web sites

Site indexes

Open Directory Project: Relativity: Categorized and annotated links. A version of this list is at Google, with entries sorted in "page rank" order.
The Net Advance of Physics: Gravitation: An index of tutorial and research articles located at the physics preprint archive.
General Relativity Around the World: Links to resrouces dealing with general relativity by the NCSA Relativity Group.
Relativity on the World Wide Web: Extensive, annotated list of links, originally by Chris Hillman, now maintained by John Baez.
Syracuse University Relativity Bookmarks: Very long categorized but unannotated list of links.
Relativity and Black Hole Links: Annotated list, by Andrew Hamilton.
Yahoo Relativity Links: Annotated list of links.
Galaxy: Relativity: Categorized site directory. Entries usually include descriptive annotations.

Sites with general resources

International Numerical Relativity Group Home Page: Home page of the NCSA Relativity Group. Many resources on computational relativity. See especially their Numerical Relativity Exhibitions.
Institute for Gravitational Physics & Geometry: Penn State U. research group that works mainly on quantum gravity and gravitational waves. The site includes information on their research and external links.
Cardiff University Relativity Group: Research group which is part of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University (Wales). Pages describe research interests and include links to related information.
Hyperspace General Relativity Hypertext: From the University of British Columbia general relativity and cosmology group. Contains a variety of resources and directories for preprints, online journals, relativity researchers.
Analog models of General Relativity: Hope page for a conference held in October 2000 which dealt with physical systems that satisfy the equations of general relativity.

Surveys, overviews, tutorials

General relativity: Article from Wikipedia. See also Gravity.
General Relativity & Black Holes: Good explanations and external links, part of Gene Smith's Astronomy Tutorial.
The Mystery of Gravity: Very good introductory discussion of gravity, with frequently asked questions, at the Astronomy Cafe.
Cambridge Relativity Public Home Page: Contains a series of good tutorial pages on various aspects of relativity and cosmology, including information on black holes and quantum gravity.
Usenet Relativity FAQ: Very good collection of articles and links. This version is not up-to-date. The Relativity FAQ is now maintained as part of the Physics FAQ.
Relativity at the centenary: January 2005 article from Physics World, by Clifford M. Will. "Gravitational physics has become a truly experimental science as tests of the special and general theories of relativity reach new levels of precision."
General Relativity Tutorial: Excellent technical introduction to general relativity by John Baez.
Reflections on Relativity: Hypertext/HTML book on special and general relativity at Kevin Brown's Mathpages.com. Much of the content does not involve highly technical math.
Relativity Tutorial: Popular tutorial by Ned Wright.
Theory: Special Relativity: Elementary overview of the special theory of relativity, from the SLAC theory pages.
Generally Speaking: A Primer on General Relativity: Single-page explanation of the difference between special and general relativity, from an interview of Sean Carroll.
Exploring Gravity: A tutorial by Mariusz Kovler
Lecture Notes on General Relativity: From a course on general relativity at MIT by Sean M. Carroll. The notes are in Postscript format. Page includes links to other sites on general relativity.
Lecture Notes on General Relativity: Another set of lecture notes, in Postscript format, by Petr Hadrava.
Tensors and Relativity: An online course by Peter Dunsby
Cosmic Plug Holes and Warp Drive: Deals with both black holes and wormholes.
Differential Geometry and General Relativity: Lecture notes by Stefan Waner. Technical mathematics.
Spacetime Wrinkles: Excellent multimedia site created by the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). Provides an overview of general relativity, black holes, gravity waves, numerical relativity, and other topics on relativity.
The Light Cone: Subtitled "an illuminating introduction to relativity". Several pages introducing some of the ideas of special and general relativity, by Roberto B. Salgado. Contains a few external links.
General Relativity and Cosmology: Overview in outline form of some topics in general relativity, by Jess Brewer.
Ask a High-Energy Astronomer: Relativity: Common questions, with answers, provided by NASA's Ask a High-Energy Astronomer service.
Gravity's Century: 1901-2001: Slide presentation given by Stanley Deser at the 2001: A Spacetime Odyssey conference.
Relativity and FTL Travel: Frequently asked questions about relativity and faster-than-light travel, by Jason Hinson.
Some Scientifically Inaccurate Claims Concerning Cosmology and Relativity: Detailed explanations of the errors of some claims to refute some aspect of cosmology or relativity, by Chris Hillman.

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Recommended references: Books

Tony Hey, Patrick Walters -- Einstein's Mirror
Cambridge University Press, 1997: The authors provide a very elementary introduction to some of the ideas of the special and general theories of relativity. The emphasis is on pictures and anecdotes to provide some historical and cultural flavor of the subject, but all of the mathematics required for actual understanding is omitted.
A. Zee -- An Old Man's Toy: Gravity at Work and Play in Einstein's Universe
Collier Books, 1989: Nontechnical survey of various topics in physics as they relate to gravity.
Michael Friedman -- Foundations of Space-Time Theories: Relativistic Physics and Philosophy of Science
Princeton University Press, 1983: Provides a philosphical analysis of the conceptual foundations of general relativity, but covers a good deal of technical physics and mathematics.

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