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Welcome to 18.996! In this Special Topics course we discuss current theoretical and experimental developments towards the detection of astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation. The discovery of the Hulse-Taylor binary gives experimental evidence for energetic emissions of gravitational waves. Upcoming experiments target the direct detection of gravitational radiation, observational evidence for Kerr black holes, binaries of black holes, and serendipitous discoveries.

Weinberg, S. Gravitation and Cosmology. Part I-IV. New York, NY: Wiley & Sons, 1972. ISBN: 0471925675.

't Hooft, G. Introduction to General Relativity . Princeton, NJ: Rinton Press Inc., 2002.

Stephani, H. General Relativity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Shapiro, S. L. and S. A. Teukolsky. Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars. New York, NY: Wiley Interscience, 1983.

Homework; collaborative presentations of papers in the final week.

1. General relativity (Lorentz transformations, electrodynamics, connections, curvature, and Einstein equations).
2. Gravitational radiation (Linear and nonlinear wave equations [van Putten-Eardley formulation], quadrupole formulas, observational evidence [Hulse-Taylor binary]).
3. Compressible fluid dynamics (Burgers' equations, steeping, shocks).
4. Black holes (Schwarzschild and Kerr geometry, symmetries, Killing vectors and conserved quantities, radiative processes [Penrose process, Hawking radiation]).
5. Astrophysical sources (gravitational collapse and compact objects, binary coalescence, black hole-torus systems and calorimetry on Kerr black holes, stochastic background radiation).
6. Current gravitational wave experiments (Laser interferometric observatories [LIGO/VIRGO/TAMA,LISA], bar and sphere detectors, science goals).
7. Numerical relativity (numerical methods, hyperbolic formulations, energy-momentum constraints, circumventing singularities).
8. Paper presentations.