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Einstein’s Field Equations, Their Special Mathematical Structure, and Some of Their Remarkable Physical Predictions

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Inertia and Gravitation

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 897))

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Abstract

In this section we first discuss some essential steps which Einstein took on his long and tedious route to the final formulation of general relativity, a route which is characterized by revolutionary and glorious ideas, but also (with hindsight) by distressing physical and mathematical errors and misjudgements. Then we report on the many different routes to general relativity which have been investigated up to today, and we argue that this quasi-uniqueness and ‘inevitability’ of general relativity is a special strength of this relativistic theory of gravitation. (Nevertheless, we cannot speak of a logical ‘derivation’ of the theory, since this would be impossible for any theory applying to new types of physical phenomena.)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Herbert Pfister

  2. Fakultät Engineering, Hochschule Albstadt-Sigmaringen, Albstadt, Germany

    Markus King

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Pfister, H., King, M. (2015). Einstein’s Field Equations, Their Special Mathematical Structure, and Some of Their Remarkable Physical Predictions. In: Inertia and Gravitation. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 897. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15036-9_3

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