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Overview
This book is an exposition of semi-Riemannian geometry (also called pseudo-Riemannian geometry)—the study of a smooth manifold furnished with a metric tensor of arbitrary signature. The principal special cases are Riemannian geometry, where the metric is positive definite, and Lorentz geometry. For many years these two geometries have developed almost independently: Riemannian geometry reformulated in coordinate-free fashion and directed toward global problems, Lorentz geometry in classical tensor notation devoted to general relativity. More recently, this divergence has been reversed as physicists, turning increasingly toward invariant methods, have produced results of compelling mathematical interest.
Audience: Advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying mathematics.
Synopsis
This book is an exposition of semi-Riemannian geometry (also called pseudo-Riemannian geometry)—the study of a smooth manifold furnished with a metric tensor of arbitrary signature. The principal special cases are Riemannian geometry, where the metric is positive definite, and Lorentz geometry. For many years these two geometries have developed almost independently: Riemannian geometry reformulated in coordinate-free fashion and directed toward global problems, Lorentz geometry in classical tensor notation devoted to general relativity. More recently, this divergence has been reversed as physicists, turning increasingly toward invariant methods, have produced results of compelling mathematical interest.