An elementary course on general relativity

This report gives an informal account of the theory of general relativity, for non-specialists. It does not contain any detailed technical expose of tensor calculus but relies instead on a number of intuitive arguments. After a brief historical introduction the notion of curvature is developed, first in two dimensions (as done originally by Gauss) and then in higher dimensions, following the ideas of Riemann. This curvature is then related to quantities of physical interest through the following steps: i) The equality of gravitational and inertial masses is discussed and presented as the ''weak equivalence principle''. ii) This is then extended to the ''strong equivalence principle'' according to the original programme of Einstein. iii) The ''strong equivalence principle'' implies the existence of a local inertial observer in any point of space-time. In a sufficiently small region of space-time this observer will not sense any gravitational field. iv) In a larger region the observer will, however, sense residual tidal forces. These forces are identified with the curvature of spacetime, to achieve a direct geometrical interpretation of gravity. v) Finally certain curvature components are related to the distribution of matter through Einstein's field equations. Section 4 contains a discussion of the classical tests of the theory and of the possibility of detecting gravitational waves. Sections 5 and 6 deal with cosmology and with the possible extension of the theory along the lines of the original ideas of Einstein, with emphasis on the dimensional reduction techniques of current interest. (orig.)