×

Einstein’s relativity in Great Britain. From Eddington to Hawking and Penrose. A tale of physicists, astronomers, mathematicians and philosophers (to appear). (English) Zbl 07153168

Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific (ISBN 978-981-12-0028-1/hbk). 250 p. (2024).
Publisher’s description: Soon after the publication of Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity in 1905 and 1915, they received attention from a wide variety of British scholars (astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and philosophers). That reaction varied from deep acceptance (as was the case of Arthur Eddington) to straightforward opposition. This book analyzes those reactions, which involved a large number of important scientists as well as philosophers, like Bertrand Russell. The study will cover from the 1910s till the 1960s, when the work of a group of relativists centered in Cambridge (Sciama and Hawking) and London (Bondi, Pirani and Penrose) made a new, fresh approach to general relativity.
Contents:
The Reception of the Special Theory of Relativity in Great Britain
Arthur Eddington, Einstein’s Missionary in Britain
The Early Reception of the General Theory of Relativity Among British Astronomers, Physicists and Mathematicians (1915-1930)
Joseph Larmor and General Relativity, as an Example of the “Old Guard” Reaction to Einstein’s Relativity
The Early Reaction of Relativity Among British Philosophers, or the Ductility of Philosophy
Alfred N Whitehead’s Versions of Relativity
The “Second Generation” of British Relativists: George McVittie, the Uncompromising Empiricist
Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold’s Versions of General Relativity: The Steady State Cosmology
Hoyle Versus Martin Ryle: Radio Astronomy and the Decline of the Steady State Cosmology
The 1960s and the Renaissance of General Relativity in Britain: Dennis Sciama, Bondi, Felix Pirani, Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawing

MSC:

83-03 History of relativity and gravitational theory
83Cxx General relativity
01A60 History of mathematics in the 20th century
PDFBibTeX XMLCite
Full Text: DOI