Physics 751 -- GENERAL RELATIVITY -- SPRING 2026

Instructor: Professor S. Martin
Office: La Tourette 214
Email: spmartin@niu.edu
Office hours: M,W,F, 11:00-12:15 and 12:45-2:00.

Class meetings: M,W,F 10:00-10:50, 227 La Tourette.

Textbook: Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity
Author: Sean M. Carroll

Note that the list of corrections found at the above link refers only to very old printings of the book. My unofficial and unauthorized list of corrections to the more recent printings is here.

Graduate catalog description: Special relativity on a flat space-time metric, manifolds and curvature, Einstein's equation, Schwarzschild solution.

Grading: 100% based on homework sets, assigned approximately weekly.

The course syllabus is available for download.

Lecture notes group 1 .

Lecture notes group 2

Lecture notes group 3

Lecture notes group 4

Homework #1 assignment (due Wednesday, January 21, 2026).

Homework #2 assignment (due Tuesday, February 3, 2026).

Homework #3 assignment (due Thursday, February 12, 2026).

Homework #4 assignment (due Friday, February 20, 2026).