Related papers: The Particle Problem in Classical Gravity: A histo…
On November 18, 1915 Einstein reported to the Prussian Academy that the perihelion motion of Mercury is explained by his new General Theory of Relativity: Einstein found approximate solutions to his November 11, 1915 field equations.…
This article presents a brief review of some historical and philosophical aspects of Einstein's 1917 paper 'Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity', a landmark work that denoted the starting point of modern…
In this Einstein Year of Physics it seems appropriate to look at an important aspect of Einstein's work that is often down-played: his contribution to the debate on the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Contrary to popular opinion, Bohr…
Translation by S. Antoci and A. Loinger of the fundamental memoir, that contains the ORIGINAL form of the solution of Schwarzschild's problem. The solution is regular in the whole space-time, with the only exception of the origin of the…
On the basis of his `Z\"urich Notebook' I shall describe a particularly fruitful phase in Einstein's struggle on the way to general relativity. These research notes are an extremely illuminating source for understanding Einstein's main…
We review and strengthen the arguments given by Einstein to derive his first gravitational field equation for static fields and show that, although it was ultimately rejected, it follows from General Relativity (GR) for negligible pressure.…
We present a translation and analysis of a cosmic model published by Einstein in 1931. The paper, which is not widely known, features a model of a universe that undergoes an expansion followed by a contraction, quite different to his static…
In 1945 Einstein concluded that [1]: 'The present theory of relativity is based on a division of physical reality into a metric field (gravitation) on the one hand, and into an electromagnetic field and matter on the other hand. In reality…
Einstein's general theory of relativity poses many problems to the quantum theory of point particle fields. Among them is the fate of a massive point particle. Since its rest mass exists entirely within its Schwarzschild radius, in the…
A generalized theory unifying gravity with electromagnetism was proposed by Einstein in 1945. He considered a Hermitian metric on a real space-time. In this work we review Einstein's idea and generalize it further to consider gravity in a…
In 1993, a proof was published, within ``Classical and Quantum Gravity,'' that there are no regular solutions to the {\it linearized} version of the twisting, type-N, vacuum solutions of the Einstein field equations. While this proof is…
General relativity can be formulated either as in its original geometrical version (Einstein, 1915) or as a field theory (Feynman, 1962). In the Feynman presentation of Einstein theory an hypothesis concerning the interaction of gravity to…
In his Autobiographical Notes, Einstein mentioned that on his road to the final theory of general relativity it was a major difficulty to accustom himself to the idea that coordinates need not possess an immediate physical meaning in terms…
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's 1915 landmark paper "Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation" in which the field equations of general relativity were correctly formulated for the first time, thus rendering general…
I reconsider Einstein's 1912 "Prague-Theory" of static gravity based on a scalar field obeying a non-linear field equation. I point out that this equation follows from the self-consistent implementation of the principle that all energies…
The renaissance of General Relativity witnessed considerable progress regarding both understanding and justifying Einstein's equations. Both general relativists and historians of the subject tend to share a view, General Relativity…
Hilbert's paper on ``The Foundations of Physics (First Communication),'' is now primarily known for its parallel publication of essentially the same gravitational field equations of general relativity which Einstein published in a note on…
In 1905 the well-known physicist Max Planck was coeditor of the Annalen der Physik, and he accepted Einstein's paper on light quanta for publication, even though he disliked the idea of "light quanta". Einstein's relativity paper was…
These notes represent a summary of the introductory part of a course on modified gravity delivered at several Spanish Universities (Granada, Valencia, and Valladolid), at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (WI, USA), and at the…
Before developing his 1915 General Theory of Relativity, Einstein held the "Entwurf" theory. Tullio Levi-Civita from Padua, one of the founders of tensor calculus, objected to a major problematic element in this theory, which reflected its…