Talk detail

MG14 - Talk detail

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 Participant

Provost, Jean-Pierre

Institution

University of Nice Sophia Antipolis  - 1361 route des Lucioles - Valbonne - - France

Session

HR1

Accepted

Order

Time

Talk

Oral abstract

Title

A brief history of the energy-momentum tensor part II (1912-1915): Einstein physicist’s logics in looking for a compromise between gravitation and relativity.
Coauthors

Abstract

In part I (MG13 Stockholm 2012) we discussed how the history (1900-1911) of relativistic dynamics was intimately linked to issues concerning energy momentum tensors, in particular the electromagnetic one. In this spirit we examine here how, for Einstein, the expected properties of the tensors relative to matter and gravitation have been source of inspiration strongly conditioning his quest for a relativistic description of gravitation. It is in this physical frame of work, already present in 1912, that at the end of 1915, stimulated by Hilbert, he sincerely thinks to have justified general covariance, probably after having suddenly realized a mathematical inconsistency in the Entwurf paper.

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