Date:
Mon, 06/11/201712:00-13:30
Location:
Levin building, Lecture Hall No. 8
Lecturer: Hanoch Gutfreund
Affiliation: HUJI
Abstract:
In November 1915, Einstein formulated his general theory of relativity, but the meaning and implications of its field equations were far from being obvious. Immediately after its publication the theory was taken up, elaborated, and controversially discussed by his colleagues, who included physicists, mathematicians, astronomers, and philosophers. We refer to the period between 1915 and the early 1930s, when more and more leading physicists turned their attention to the booming new field of quantum mechanics, as the formative years of general relativity. This is the period when the basic ideas and principles of the theory were revised and reinterpreted, when the first solutions of the field equations were derived and analyzed, and when the cosmological consequences of the theory were debated. These were the years in which the theory essentially received the form in which it later became one of the pillars of modern physics. Einstein himself also made further fundamental contributions to the development of his theory, exploring consequences such as gravitational waves and cosmological solutions, and embarking on his life-long quest for a unified field theory. These developments will be the central theme of the lecture.
Affiliation: HUJI
Abstract:
In November 1915, Einstein formulated his general theory of relativity, but the meaning and implications of its field equations were far from being obvious. Immediately after its publication the theory was taken up, elaborated, and controversially discussed by his colleagues, who included physicists, mathematicians, astronomers, and philosophers. We refer to the period between 1915 and the early 1930s, when more and more leading physicists turned their attention to the booming new field of quantum mechanics, as the formative years of general relativity. This is the period when the basic ideas and principles of the theory were revised and reinterpreted, when the first solutions of the field equations were derived and analyzed, and when the cosmological consequences of the theory were debated. These were the years in which the theory essentially received the form in which it later became one of the pillars of modern physics. Einstein himself also made further fundamental contributions to the development of his theory, exploring consequences such as gravitational waves and cosmological solutions, and embarking on his life-long quest for a unified field theory. These developments will be the central theme of the lecture.