Belated decision in the Hilbert-Einstein priority dispute

Science

Volumn 278, Issue 5341, 1997, Pages 1270-1273

  Corry, Leo ^a   Renn, Jürgen ^b   Stachel, John ^c  

^a TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

^b MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE   (Germany)

^c Boston University   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; DECISION MAKING; GRAVITY; MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS; MATHEMATICAL COMPUTING; PRIORITY JOURNAL; THEORY;

EID: 0030712304     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5341.1270     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. The conclusive paper is A. Einstein, Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. 1915, 844 (1915).
2. For a historical review, based on joint work with M. Janssen, J. Norton, and J. Stachel, see J. Renn and T. Sauer, Phys. BI. 52, 865 (1996).
3. The conclusive paper is D. Hilbert, Nach. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen 1916, 395 (1916).
4. For historical reviews, see (23); M. J. Mehra, Einstein, Hilbert, and the Theory of Gravitation (Reidel, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1974); and J. Earman and C. Glymour, Arch. Hist. Exact. Sci. 19, 291 (1978).
5. For historical reviews, see (23); M. J. Mehra, Einstein, Hilbert, and the Theory of Gravitation (Reidel, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1974); and J. Earman and C. Glymour, Arch. Hist. Exact. Sci. 19, 291 (1978).
6. For historical reviews, see (23); M. J. Mehra, Einstein, Hilbert, and the Theory of Gravitation (Reidel, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1974); and J. Earman and C. Glymour, Arch. Hist. Exact. Sci. 19, 291 (1978).
7. A. Fölsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography (Viking, New York, 1997). pp. 375-376. The translation has been slightly modified.
8. Hilbert used the trace of the Ricci tensor (3), whereas Einstein used the trace of the matter tensor (see Eq. 1); but these two forms are essentially equivalent.
9. See, for example, A. Pais, "Subtle is the Lord...": The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1982), pp. 257-261.
10. A. Einstein, Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. 1915, 799 (1915).
11. Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (Handschriftenabteilung), Cod. Ms. D. Hubert 634.
12. Hilbert republished his paper (3) with extensive changes in Math. Ann. 92, 1 (1924).
13. Einstein's paper (1) is cited on p. 395 of (3), as noted by Guth (23).
14. Pages 3 and 4 of the proofs (9); translation of this and the following quotations is by the authors.
15. Page 7 of the proofs (9).
16. D. Hilbert, letter to F. Klein, 7 March 1918, in Der Briefwechsel David Hilbert - Felix Klein (1886-1918), G. Frei, Ed. (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1985), p. 129.
17. D. Hilbert, Nach. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen 53, 61 (1917).
18. For a discussion of Hilbert's revised definition of causality and its implications for the Cauchy problem in general relativity, see J. Stachel, in Studies in the History of General Relativity (Einstein Studies Vol. 3), J. Eisenstaedt and A. J. Kox, Eds. (Birkhäuser, Boston, 1992), p. 407.
19. μν and its trace by K. He does not note the negative value of the determinant of the metric tensor g until later (10).
20. D. Hilbert, letter to A. Einstein, 14 November 1915, Einstein Archives Call No. 13-052. We understand that this and the letters referred to in the following will be published in the forthcoming volume 8 of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein.
21. A. Einstein, letter to D. Hubert, 15 November 1915, Einstein Archives Call No. 13-089.
22. _, letter to D. Hubert, 18 November 1915, Einstein Archives Call No. 13-091.
23. _, K. Pr. Akad. Wiss. Sitz. 1915, 778 (1915).
24. _, letter to D. Hilbert, 20 December 1915, Einstein Archives Call No. 13-093.
25. E. Guth, in Relativity, M. Carmeli et al., Eds. (Plenum, New York, 1970), p. 161.
26. The authors wish to thank G. Castagnetti for his cooperation in the archival work, especially in the dating of the central documents. They also thank P. Damerow, M. Janssen, U. Majer, D. Rowe, and T. Sauer for helpful discussions. We also thank Z. Rosenkranz and the Einstein Archives, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, for permission to quote from Einstein's letters, and the Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (Handschriftenabteilung) for the kind permission to reproduce Fig. 1.