Related papers: How Hilbert has found the Einstein equations befor…
In the 1920s, Ackermann and von Neumann, in pursuit of Hilbert's Programme, were working on consistency proofs for arithmetical systems. One proposed method of giving such proofs is Hilbert's epsilon-substitution method. There was, however,…
Albert Einstein's journey to formulate the theory of general relativity involved significant shifts in his approach to gravitational field equations. Starting in 1912, he collaborated with Marcel Grossmann and initially explored broadly…
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…
Einstein regarded as one of the triumphs of his 1915 theory of gravity --- the general theory of relativity --- that it vindicated the action--reaction principle, while Newtonian mechanics as well as his 1905 special theory of relativity…
It is well known that the Einstein-Hilbert action in two dimensions is topological and yields an identically vanishing Einstein tensor. Consequently one is faced with difficulties when formulating a non-trivial gravity model. We present a…
K. G\"odel [G1] discovered his celebrated solution to Einstein equations in 1949. Additional contributions were made by Kundt [K] and Hawking-Ellis ([H-E],5.7). On the other hand, a general Lorentz invariant operator, associated to the…
More than thirty years passed since the first discoveries of various aspects of integrability of the symmetry reduced vacuum Einstein equations and electrovacuum Einstein - Maxwell equations were made and gave rise to constructions of…
The Einstein postulates assert an invariance of the propagation speed of light in vacuum for any observer, and which amounts to a presumed absence of any preferred frame. The postulates appear to be directly linked to relativistic effects…
The content of Einstein's theory of gravitation is encoded in the properties of the solutions to his field equations. There has been obtained a wealth of information about these solutions in the ninety years the theory has been around. It…
In his first November 4, 1915 paper Einstein wrote the Lagrangian form of his field equations. In the fourth November 25, 1915 paper, Einstein added a trace term of the energy-momentum tensor on the right-hand side of the generally…
The historical and conceptual foundations of General Relativity are revisited, putting the main focus on the physical meaning of the invariant ds, the Equivalence Principle, and the precise interpretation of spacetime geometry. It is argued…
The foundations of Einstein's first (1907) principle of equivalence are explored and their consequences are stated in terms of invariance under generalized Lorentz transformations, first explored by Hessenberg.
The problem of axiomatization of physics formulated by Hilbert as early as 1900 and known as the Sixth Problem of Hilbert is nowadays even more topical than at the moment of its formulation. Axiomatic inconsistency of classic, quantum, and…
This article, written to appear as a chapter in "The Springer Handbook of Spacetime", is a review of the initial value problem for Einstein's gravitational field theory in general relativity. Designed to be accessible to graduate students…
This is a review with some comments on the A. Einstein`s 1911 paper, which he published as one of his many attempts of the general theory of relativity. The main point of the idea is to propose a new approach about light and its motion as…
A century ago, Einstein formulated his elegant and elaborate theory of General Relativity, which has so far withstood a multitude of empirical tests with remarkable success. Notwithstanding the triumphs of Einstein's theory, the tenacious…
Einstein established the theory of general relativity and the corresponding field equation in 1915 and its vacuum solutions were obtained by Schwarzschild and Kerr for, respectively, static and rotating black holes, in 1916 and 1963,…
The 'hole argument'(the English translation of German 'Lochbetrachtung') was formulated by Albert Einstein in 1913 in his search for a relativistic theory of gravitation. The hole argument was deemed to be based on a trivial error of…
A mathematical complication due to an unnecessary formal assumption concerning the variational principle of general relativity theory, which apparently bothered Einstein and Hilbert, is shown and cleared up. Some historical confusion seems…
The metric-affine variational principle is applied to generate teleparallel and symmetric teleparallel theories of gravity. From the latter is discovered an exceptional class which is consistent with a vanishing affine connection. Based on…