To impart

(i)              a firm grasp of the physical principles behind Special and General Relativity and their main consequences;

(ii)           technical competence in the mathematical framework of the subjects - Lorentz transformation, coordinate transformations and geodesics in Riemann space;

(iii)          knowledge of some of the classical tests of General Relativity - perihelion shift, gravitational deflection of light;

(iv)          basic concepts of black holes and (if time) relativistic cosmology.

After  completing this module students should

(i)              understand why space-time forms a non-Euclidean four-dimensional manifold;

(ii)           be proficient at calculations involving Lorentz transformations, energy-momentum conservation, and the Christoffel symbols.

(iii)          understand the arguments leading to the Einstein''s field equations and how Newton''s law of gravity arises as a limiting case.

(iv) be able to calculate the trajectories of bodies in a Schwarzschild space-time.