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Course Content:  

Required Texts:
Black Holes: A Student Text, 3rd Edition, D. J. Raine and E. Thomas, 2015.
Gravity's Fatal Attraction (Black Holes in the Universe), 3rd Edition, M. Begelman and M. Rees, 2020.

Other Readings [optional]: Introduction to Black Hole Physics, V. P, Valeri and A. Zelnikov.  Others to be posted at website.

Course Description: This is an introduction to the physics of compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes. We will cover gravitational collapse, the general relativity of charged and spinning black holes, black hole thermodynamics, the search for black holes and recent discoveries based on Einstein's predictions from 100 years ago. This course is particularly timely as the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics was just awarded for the prediction of black holes from general relativity and for finding a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.

Goals:

The primary goal of this course is to explore the physics of black holes with an introduction to general relativity.

Learning Outcomes:

The student will be able to

• Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of Special and General Relativity.
• Discuss the observational evidence for compact astrophysical objects.
• Convey the stages of stellar collapse to compacts objects.
• Manipulate vectors and tensors.
• Identify important aspects of using different coordinate systems describing spacetimes.
• Derive geodesics (orbits) for particles and light rays for given spacetimes.
• Recount the theory for black hole thermodynamics.

Web Pages/Email:

This syllabus as well as a variety of other relevant information for this class is posted on the internet. The website is located at

http://people.uncw.edu/hermanr/BlackHoles

You are encouraged to log onto this page often to check the assignments, read text material, listen to videos, and read about related topics and further examples. You will need to continually watch for additions, changes, and announcements for the class. So, make it a daily habit to go to the web site and read something different.

Advice for Success:  

In order to learn the material in this course and earn a good grade, you need to put in some effort. Do not put off assignments or reading. If you do not understand something, ask the instructor. Come to office hours, use the email, ask knowledgeable students, or go to the library/internet and find supplementary material. Additional material (videos, links to papers, books, lecture notes) will be posted at the course website. You are expected to not only listen to the lectures, you need to read the texts and additional materials provided.

Course Requirements:

Assignments: Assignments will be collected on a regular basis and you will be told when the work is due. As doing homework is very important for learning the material in this course, it will count as 50% of your grade. Late homework is subject to a 10% penalty..

Papers and Presentations: There will be opportunities to investigate course topics further in the form of a project or investigation. These will make up 10% of the course grade.

Attendance: YOU ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND ALL OF THE CLASSES! However, in this time of Covid, allowances may be made with appropriate opportunity to make up for missed classes.

Exams and Grades: There will be two exams in this course. Each exams will cover roughly 50% of the course material. The tentative dates for the exams are below.

Your final grade will be based on the following:

This syllabus is subject to change!
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Academic Honor Code:

All members of UNCW's community are expected to follow the academic Honor Code. Please read the UNCW Honor Code carefully (as covered in the UNCW Student Handbook). Academic dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated in this class. Please be especially familiar with UNCW's position on plagiarism as outlined in the UNCW Student Handbook. Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty in which you take someone else's ideas and represent them as your own.

Student Disabilities: UNCW Disability Services supplies information about disability law, documentation procedures and accommodations that can be found at http://uncw.edu/disability/. To obtain accommodations the student should first contact Disability Services and present their documentation to the coordinator for review and verification.