Patricia M. Schwarz received her BA from San Francisco State University and her PhD in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology. Her research specialty is spacetime geometry in general relativity and string theory. She is an expert in multimedia and online education technology. Her award-winning multimedia-rich web site at http://superstringtheory.com is popular with the public and is widely used as an educationalresource, hosting online physics courses with teachers and students from around the world. John H. Schwarz, the Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, is one of the founders of superstring theory. He coauthored a two-volume monograph 'Superstring Theory' with Michael Green and Edward Witten in 1987. He is a Mac Arthur Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received the Dirac Medal from the International Center for Theoretical Physics and the Dannie Heineman Prize in Mathematical Physics from the American Physical Society.

• Preface; Part I. Fundamentals: 1. From Pythagoras to spacetime geometry; 2. Light surprises everyone; 3. Elements of spacetime geometry; 4. Mechanics in spacetime; 5. Spacetime physics of fields; 6. Causality and relativity; Part II. Advanced Topics: 7. When quantum mechanics and relativity collide; 8. Group theory and relativity; 9. Supersymmetry and superspace; 10. Looking onward; Appendix 1. Where do equations of motion come from?; Appendix 2. Basic group theory; Appendix 3. Lie groups and Lie algebras; Appendix 4. The structure of super Lie algebras; References; Index.

'This well-written book will be extremely helpful for physics students who wish to go beyond what is most commonly taught and to delve more deeply into special relativity, for its own sake or as a starting point for understanding general relativity and gravitation. The authors treat many modern topics in addition to the classical material.' Professor Edward Witten, rinceton Institute for Advanced Study