The course on “Introduction to General Relativity” will provide a basic introduction to the field at the level of a usual Masters course in General Relativity. Importantly, there will be a pre-school which gives an overview of important concepts in special relativity.
There will be two halves to the main course. In the first, we will then have approximately eight 2-hour lectures covering tensor calculus, mathematics of curved spacetimes, and the basics of Einstein’s theory of relativity. In the second half, we will move to more advanced topics; we will provide an introduction to the theory of black holes and gravitational waves, and the basic FRW theory of cosmology, ending with a brief summary of inflation.

Program coordinators:

1. Prof. Nabil Iqbal ( Durham University, UK and University of Amsterdam,
Netherlands)
2. Ahmed Rakin Kamal ( Masaryk University, Czech Republic and Brac University,
Bangladesh)
3. Sayeda Tashnuba Jahan, (Brac University, Bangladesh)
4. Mishaal Hai (University of Bologna, Italy)

Potential Teaching Assistants:

1. Mishaal Hai
2. Sayeda Tashnuba Jahan
3. Reaz Shafqat
4. Noshin Ferdous Shamma
5. S.M Masruk Uddin

Applications will be accepted from 14 April to 14 May and can be submitted here.

On 28 May Prof. Iqbal will hold a welcome session and a short speech.

Phase 1: Introduction To General Relativity

Lecture 0: Preschool

Lecture 0a: Coordinate Systems
Lecture 0b: Review of Special Relativity

Lecture 1 - 4 : Prof. Nabil Iqbal (Durham University, United Kingdom) and Prof. Nafiz Ishtiaque (IHES, Paris, France)

Lecture 1: Motivations for General Relativity and introduction to tensors and the notion
of manifolds, general coordinate systems.
Lecture 2: Covariant derivatives and Riemann Tensors.
Lecture 3: Curved manifolds and Geodesics.
Lecture 4: Einstein’s equations.

Lecture 5 - 8 : Mr. Hassaan Saleem (SUNY, New York, USA)

Lecture 5: Notion of symmetries
Lecture 6: Weak field approximation.
Lecture 7: Schwarzschild Solution
Lecture 8: Gravitational Waves.

Phase 2: Cosmology

Lecture 9-10 : Mr. Luca Brunelli (University of Bologna)

Lecture 9: Isotropy and homogeneity and FLRW universe
Lecture 10: Kinematics in FLRW Universe and Problems of Big Bang Cosmology.
Lecture 11-12 : Mr. Luca Brunelli (University of Bologna)
Lecture 11: Introduction and requirement for inflation
Lecture 12: Inflationary models

Phase 3: Seminars (TO BE CONFIRMED)

Seminar 1: Prof. Cliff Burgess (Perimeter Institute)
Effective Field Theories of Gravity
Seminar 2: Prof. Samir Mathur
Quantum Aspects of Black Holes
Seminar 3: Prof. Daniel Baumann
Quantum Aspects of Inflation