Relativistic Mechanics and Classical Field Theory

We begin with a gentle and thorough introduction to Special Relativity, and take some time to have fun with shapes in Minkowski space. We proceed to an advanced treatment of relativistic particles, electromagnetic fields and weak gravitational fields (to the extent that doesn’t require General Relativity). Antiparticles are introduced early on, and we put an emphasis on actions and phase space structures. We introduce the geometric concept of spinors, and the notion of spin for particles and fields. We discuss the Dirac equation and the resulting picture of the electron. We introduce conformal infinity. Time allowing, we discuss a bit of conformal field theory and some physics in de Sitter space.