This book provides a completely revised and expanded version of the
previous classic edition 'General Relativity and Relativistic
Astrophysics'. In Part I the foundations of general relativity are
thoroughly developed, while Part II is devoted to tests of general
relativity and many of its applications. Binary pulsars - our best
laboratories for general relativity - are studied in considerable
detail. An introduction to gravitational lensing theory is included as
well, so as to make the current literature on the subject accessible to
readers. Considerable attention is devoted to the study of compact
objects, especially to black holes. This includes a detailed derivation
of the Kerr solution, Israel's proof of his uniqueness theorem, and a
derivation of the basic laws of black hole physics. Part II ends with
Witten's proof of the positive energy theorem, which is presented in
detail, together with the required tools on spin structures and spinor
analysis. In Part III, all of the differential geometric tools required
are developed in detail. A great deal of effort went into refining and
improving the text for the new edition. New material has been added,
including a chapter on cosmology. The book addresses undergraduate and
graduate students in physics, astrophysics and mathematics. It utilizes
a very well structured approach, which should help it continue to be a
standard work for a modern treatment of gravitational physics. The clear
presentation of differential geometry also makes it useful for work on
string theory and other fields of physics, classical as well as quantum.
