Optical Magnetometry

radar echo delay, black holes and gravitational waves. It is worth pointing out that even here the author goes beyond a mere introduction, for example in the analysis of the phase diagram of cosmological parameters, the calculation of the first acoustic peak in the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, the discussion of the precession of gyroscopes, the utilisation of Penrose diagrams to understand the causal structure of spacetime and the study of rotating black holes. Gravitational lensing, despite its important role in modern astronomy, is not covered at all. After just under 600 pages, the reader is already well versed in general relativity and many of its most important applications. Where many other textbook authors would have stopped, Zee goes on and continues with more advanced and modern subjects that will prepare the student to start doing research in the area. Maximally symmetric spaces, the vielbein formalism, conformal algebra, de Sitter and anti de Sitter spacetime, Kaluza– Klein theory, brane worlds, topological field theory and twistors are some of the more exotic topics the author addresses. These chapters make Zee’s book incredibly worthwhile, since treatments at the undergraduate level of these subjects hardly exist. All in all, Zee succeeded to write a unique textbook on general relativity. His narrative is exciting and well structured, but he also does not shy away from computations when they are necessary. The logical steps in attacking a problem are always presented very transparently, making it easier for the novice to become familiar with the material. The book is beautifully typeset and richly illustrated. It contains exercises at the end of each chapter and solutions to selected exercises in the appendix, together with a detailed index and a collection of important formulae. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding general relativity.