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[561]

Can anyone suggest a guide to general relativity for someone with a pure maths background? In particular I am interested in the exact solutions and their properties. There must be a book out there for someone who is happy with UG/PG algebra and analysis but who tended to avoid anything which involved a method and has a poor grasp of the

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[minus10]

There *may* have been a time when I understood the math on those pages, but sadly it feels like the lightest touch of a familiar breeze these days.

I have to make do with bad sci-fi for time paradox these days.

[561]

On the Godel metric page I have to say I understand some of the maths terms but cannot follow. Some of the terms are only vague memories but not something I don't think I could go back to understanding if needed. But, a wikipedia page is not the place to start and I have never done anything involving tensors... so I can't think in them.

The page on CTCs which led me to read more about light cones and spacetime metrics was much easier to begin to follow but I can't piece together the actual maths, it is like trying to start in the middle with someone assuming the wrong maths background and the wrong intention of the reader. Then I tried to understand Cauchy horizon and got lost.

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Oh, and yes, bad sci-fi is much easier :)

Just I was surprised to know that there are exact solutions that have strange properties and I wondered structurally what range of properties the solutions permit.

[kittensofdoom]

ask ben... but as he prefers lasers and hitting things with hammers he might not be much use...

[561]

This is a good plan, I will ask him next time I see him.

I have found an undergraduate textbook I have access too which is aimed at and written by a mathematician. I am going to read that to start out mainly because I understood the entire first seven pages except to look up what some assumed background that I had actually just forgotten.