Welcome -

Welcome back! You are signed up for PHY 490 on the physics of black holes. We will meet twice a week on TR at 9:30 AM. The course website is at http://people.uncw.edu/hermanr/BlackHoles/. There is not a lot there yet. You will see that I have two main books -  Black Holes: A Student Text, 3rd Edition, and Gravity's Fatal Attraction (Black Holes in the Universe), 3rd Edition. The first book starts out with some assumptions and is fairly mathematical but not as much as some black hole books are. The other is more readable and the current edition came out in November with up to date additions. You may want to begin by reading that book.

I will first begin the class with some overview about white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. Then I will discuss what we need to know about special relativity and general relativity before getting too deep into the Black Holes text. I will review what special relativity you say in modern physics and do it a little differently. So, it may be two weeks, or so, before we will get into the Black Holes text. Along the way you will learn some physics and delve into the mathematics of black holes. As you can see later in the schedule, I hope to also discuss black hole thermodynamics, evaporation, and the information paradox.

So, I hope this will be a fun class. It's not too late to coax more students to come. 

If you can't wait, watch some videos - The Physics of Black Holes - with Chris Impey, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roM1QPr8lNo.

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