Cheng's Lectures on Relativity & Cosmology

This online course is linked to the textbook A College Course on Relativity and Cosmology by Ta-Pei Cheng 鄭大培 (Oxford 2015). The 30 lectures (each in 3 or 4 video clips) are divided into eight parts. Part 1 contains Introduction & Special Relativity. The next three parts are devoted to Einstein’s theory of gravitation, called General Relativity (GR). It is motivated, in Part 2, via the Equivalence Principle. In Part 3 we took the “physics first” approach to GR, with the full tensor formalism given later in Part 4. The subject of black holes is presented in Part 5. We explain in Part 6 why GR provides the natural framework for cosmology. The picture of an expanding universe with a big hot beginning is strongly supported by the evidence of the cosmic thermal relics, discussed in Part 7. Finally in Part 8, we discuss Einstein’s cosmological constant which underlies the inflationary theory of the big bang beginning as well as the possible cause of the observed accelerating universe.