The Special Theory of Relativity

The book expounds the major topics in the special theory of relativity. It provides a detailed examination of the mathematical foundation of the special theory of relativity, relativistic mass, relativistic mechanics and relativistic electrodynamics.  As well as covariant formulation of relativistic mechanics and electrodynamics, the book discusses the relativistic effect on photons. Using a mathematical approach, the text offers graduate students a clear, concise view of the special theory of relativity. Organized into 14 chapters and two appendices, the content is presented in a logical order, and every topic has been dealt with in a simple and lucid manner. To aid understanding of the subject, the book provides numerous relevant worked examples in every chapter. The book’s mathematical approach helps students in their independent study and motivates them to research the topic further.

“This book offers a valuable exposition of the main topics in the special theory of relativity. … The book is concise but clear and well written. It provides a number of interesting examples … and worked exercises in every chapter, helping the reader to understand the topic at hand. … The book would be appropriate as an introductory text on special relativity for graduate students.” (Francesco Sorge, Mathematical Reviews, June, 2015)

“The book is a self-contained and well planned text book for graduate students. It covers the special theory of relativity for mathematics and physics students. The main goal of the book is a clear and successful presentation of the basic ideas of relativity. The reader can see an attention of the author to help students in understanding and further developing of the basic notions of the subject.” (P. K. Sahoo, zbMATH 1316.83018, 2015)

FAROOK RAHAMAN is associate professor at the Department of Mathematics, Jadavpur University, West Bengal. With over 15 years  of experience in teaching and working with various fields of application of  relativity,  he has supervised so far 14 PhD students. He has about 180 research papers to his credit published in several international journals. Dr. Rahaman has been selected for TWAS UNESCO Associateship, Trieste, Italy, for the period of 2011–2014.In addition, he has also been selected  for Associate of IUCAA and Associate of IMSc in 2009. He has been awarded with UGC Post-Doctoral Research Award by the Government of India in 2010. He is co-author of the  book Finsler Geometry of Hadrons and Lyra Geometry: Cosmological Aspects, Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 2012.