English

David Hilbert and the origin of the "Schwarzschild solution"

History and Philosophy of Physics 2007-05-23 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

The very early dismissal of Schwarzschild's original solution and manifold, and the rise, under Schwarzschild's name, of the inequivalent solution and manifold found instead by Hilbert, are scrutinised and commented upon, in the light of the subsequent occurrences. It is reminded that Hilbert's manifold suffers from two defects, that are absent in Schwarzschild's manifold. It does not admit a consistent drawing of the arrow of time, and it allows for an invariant, local, intrinsic singularity in its interior. The former defect is remedied by the change of topology of the extensions proposed by Synge, Kruskal and Szekeres. The latter persists unaffected in the extensions, since it is of local character.

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0310104,
  title  = {David Hilbert and the origin of the "Schwarzschild solution"},
  author = {Salvatore Antoci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0310104},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

LaTeX, 12 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T18:57:28.127Z