Marcel Grossmann and his contribution to the general theory of relativity
History and Philosophy of Physics
2014-04-22 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Mathematical Physics
math.MP
Abstract
This article reviews the biography of the Swiss mathematician Marcel Grossmann (1878-1936) and his contributions to the emergence of the general theory of relativity. The first part is his biography, while the second part reviews his collaboration with Einstein in Zurich which resulted in the Einstein-Grossmann theory of 1913. This theory is a precursor version of the final theory of general relativity with all the ingredients of that theory except for the correct gravitational field equations. Their collaboration is analyzed in some detail with a focus on the question of exactly what role Grossmann played in it.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1312.4068,
title = {Marcel Grossmann and his contribution to the general theory of relativity},
author = {Tilman Sauer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.4068},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
52pp, 7 figs, to appear in Proceedings of 13th Marcel Grossmann meeting; revised version with some minor stylistic emendations