PHYS 515 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Schedule
Lectures will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 13:00pm - 14:20pm in 222 Loomis Laboratory.
Recordings of the lectures will be posted on mediaspace.
Starting in week 2, homework sets will be available on this website on Tuesdays after the lecture. They are due the following Tuesday before 11:55 p.m. Central US and must be submitted online via my physics.
In general, you are allowed to use computer algebra software, like Maple, Mathematica, or Python, unless stated otherwise. If you use computer algebra software, together with your PDF solution, you must provide a well-formatted printout of your code. You are not allowed to use computer algebra packages, such as grTensor or xTensor (or similar), to calculate tensorial quantities. Also, please no ChatGPT and similar AI tools.
If you have any issues logging in to view any of the secured documents below, please try adding "uofi\" (without the quotes) in front of your netid.
The lecture notes are included here for your convenience. However, they are not a replacement for a textbook! PLEASE DON'T SHARE THE LECTURE NOTES!
For details on semester dates, registration deadlines, etc. please check the Academic calendar.
| Week | Date | Lecture | Homework 1-hour paper review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue 08/26/2025 |
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| Thu 08/28/2025 |
L2. Special Relativity |
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| 2 | Tue 09/02/2025 |
L3. Lorentz transformations |
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| Thu 09/04/2025 |
L4. Vectors and 1-forms |
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| 3 | Tue 09/9/2025 |
L5. Tensors |
HW 1 due HW 2 assigned |
| Thu 09/11/2025 |
L6. Tensors |
paper review 1 due | |
| 4 | Tue 09/16/2025 |
L7. Physics in flat spacetimes |
HW 2 due HW 3 assigned |
| Thu 09/18/2025 |
L8. Physics in flat spacetimes |
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| 5 | Tue 09/23/2025 |
L9. Manifolds |
HW 3 due HW 4 assigned |
| Thu 09/25/2025 |
L10. Manifolds |
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| 6 | Tue 09/30/2025 |
L11. Curves and vector fields |
HW 4 due HW 5 assigned |
| Thu 10/02/2025 |
L12.Tensors in curved spacetime |
paper review 2 due | |
| 7 | Tue 10/07/2025 |
L13. Tensors in curved spacetime |
HW 5 due No homework assigned |
| Thu 10/09/2025 |
L14. Differential forms |
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| 8 | Tue 10/14/2025 | MIDTERM EXAM | No homework due HW 6 assigned |
| Thu 10/16/2025 |
L15. Connection and covariant derivative |
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| 9 | Tue 10/21/2025 |
L16. Parallel transport and geodesics |
HW 6 due HW 7 assigned |
| Thu 10/23/2025 |
L17. Riemann curvature |
paper review 3 due | |
| 10 | Tue 10/28/2025 |
L18. Symmetries and Killing vectors |
HW 7 due HW 8 assigned |
| Thu 10/30/2025 |
L19. Gravitation and Einstein's equations |
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| 11 | Tue 11/04/2025 |
L20. Einstein's equations and energy conditions EXTRA: Lecture notes 20a |
HW 8 due HW 9 assigned |
| Thu 11/06/2025 |
L21. Schwarzschild metric and Birkhoff's theorem EXTRA: Lecture notes 21a |
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| 12 | Tue 11/11/2025 |
L22. Geodesics of Schwarzchild |
HW 9 due HW 10 assigned |
| Thu 11/13/2025 |
L23. Stars in General Relativity |
paper review 4 due | |
| 13 | Tue 11/18/2025 |
L24. TOV equations and black holes |
HW 10 due HW 11 assigned |
| Thu 11/20/2025 |
L25. Black holes |
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| 14 | 11/22/2025 -- 11/30/2025 | Fall Break | |
| 15 | Tue 12/02/2025 |
L26. More about black holes Linearized Einstein's equations |
HW 11 due HW 12 assigned |
| Thu 12/04/2025 |
L27. Gravitational waves |
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| 16 | Tue 12/09/2025 |
L28. Cosmology |
HW 12 due |
| Thu 12/11/2025 | Reading Day | ||
| 12/12/2025 -- 12/16/2025 | Final Exam | ||