sidebar
"On the History of Unified Field Theories. Part II. (ca. 1930 – ca. 1965)"
Hubert F. M. Goenner 
Abstract
1 Introduction
2 Mathematical Preliminaries
2.1 Metrical structure
2.2 Symmetries
2.3 Affine geometry
2.4 Differential forms
2.5 Classification of geometries
2.6 Number fields
3 Interlude: Meanderings – UFT in the late 1930s and the 1940s
3.1 Projective and conformal relativity theory
3.2 Continued studies of Kaluza–Klein theory in Princeton, and elsewhere
3.3 Non-local fields
4 Unified Field Theory and Quantum Mechanics
4.1 The impact of Schrödinger’s and Dirac’s equations
4.2 Other approaches
4.3 Wave geometry
5 Born–Infeld Theory
6 Affine Geometry: Schrödinger as an Ardent Player
6.1 A unitary theory of physical fields
6.2 Semi-symmetric connection
7 Mixed Geometry: Einstein’s New Attempt
7.1 Formal and physical motivation
7.2 Einstein 1945
7.3 Einstein–Straus 1946 and the weak field equations
8 Schrödinger II: Arbitrary Affine Connection
8.1 Schrödinger’s debacle
8.2 Recovery
8.3 First exact solutions
9 Einstein II: From 1948 on
9.1 A period of undecidedness (1949/50)
9.2 Einstein 1950
9.3 Einstein 1953
9.4 Einstein 1954/55
9.5 Reactions to Einstein–Kaufman
9.6 More exact solutions
9.7 Interpretative problems
9.8 The role of additional symmetries
10 Einstein–Schrödinger Theory in Paris
10.1 Marie-Antoinette Tonnelat and Einstein’s Unified Field Theory
10.2 Tonnelat’s research on UFT in 1946 – 1952
10.3 Some further developments
10.4 Further work on unified field theory around M.-A. Tonnelat
10.5 Research by and around André Lichnerowicz
11 Higher-Dimensional Theories Generalizing Kaluza’s
11.1 5-dimensional theories: Jordan–Thiry theory
11.2 6- and 8-dimensional theories
12 Further Contributions from the United States
12.1 Eisenhart in Princeton
12.2 Hlavatý at Indiana University
12.3 Other contributions
13 Research in other English Speaking Countries
13.1 England and elsewhere
13.2 Australia
13.3 India
14 Additional Contributions from Japan
15 Research in Italy
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Approximative study of field equations
15.3 Equations of motion for point particles
16 The Move Away from Einstein–Schrödinger Theory and UFT
16.1 Theories of gravitation and electricity in Minkowski space
16.2 Linear theory and quantization
16.3 Linear theory and spin-1/2-particles
16.4 Quantization of Einstein–Schrödinger theory?
17 Alternative Geometries
17.1 Lyra geometry
17.2 Finsler geometry and unified field theory
18 Mutual Influence and Interaction of Research Groups
18.1 Sociology of science
18.2 After 1945: an international research effort
19 On the Conceptual and Methodic Structure of Unified Field Theory
19.1 General issues
19.2 Observations on psychological and philosophical positions
20 Concluding Comment
Acknowledgements
References
Footnotes
Biographies
Pascual Jordan (1902 – 1980) was the only pioneer of quantum (matrix-) mechanics and quantum field theory who was not awarded a Nobel Prize unlike M. Born, W. Heisenberg and P. A. M. Dirac. After having been an assistant of R. Courant and M. Born in Göttingen and lecturer in Hamburg, in 1929 he became professor in Rostock; in 1944 he succeeded M. v. Laue at the (now Humboldt) University of Berlin. Due to his intellectual support of the Nazi-movement, after the second world war he had to wait until 1953 before again becoming full professor at the university of Hamburg. Apart from theoretical physics, Jordan also contributed to mathematics (Jordan algebras) and, less successfully, to biology and geology.