Field equations in teleparallel spacetime: Einstein's Fernparallelismus approach towards unified field theory

Abstract

A historical account of Einstein's 'Fernparallelismus' approach towards a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism is given. In this theory, a space-time characterized by a curvature-free connection in conjunction with a metric tensor field, both defined in terms of a dynamical tetrad field, is investigated. The approach was pursued by Einstein in a number of publications that appeared in the period from summer 1928 until spring 1931. In the historical analysis special attention is given to the question of how Einstein tried to find field equations for the tetrads. We claim that it was the failure to find and justify a uniquely determined set of acceptable field equations which eventually led to Einstein's abandoning of this approach. We comment on some historical and systematic similarities between the 'Fernparallelismus' episode and the 'Entwurf' theory, i.e. the precursor theory of general relativity pursued by Einstein in the years 1912-1915.

47 pages

References in corpus (2)

• Hilbert's 'World Equations' and His Vision of a Unified Science
• The Challenge of Editing Einstein's Scientific Manuscripts

Cited by in corpus (45)

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• The covariant formulation of f(T) gravity
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• Covariant formulation of f(Q) theory
• Covariant formulation of scalar-torsion gravity
• Modified teleparallel theories of gravity in symmetric spacetimes
• Problems with Propagation and Time Evolution in f(T) Gravity
• Cosmological Perturbation in f(T) Gravity Revisited
• Conformal Gravity and Transformations in the Symmetric Teleparallel Framework
• Teleparallel theories of gravity as analogue of non-linear electrodynamics
• Propagation of gravitational waves in teleparallel gravity theories
• Holographic Renormalization in Teleparallel Gravity
• Influence of three parameters on maximum mass and stability of strange star under linear $f(Q)-$action
• Teleparallel Gravity as a Higher Gauge Theory
• Acausality and Nonunique Evolution in Generalized Teleparallel Gravity
• Is Teleparallel Gravity really equivalent to General Relativity?
• Lorentz gauge-invariant variables in torsion-based theories of gravity
• Teleparallelism: A New Insight Into Gravity
• The Epistemic Virtues of the Virtuous Theorist: On Albert Einstein and His Autobiography
• Rotational elasticity
• The stationary Weyl equation and Cosserat elasticity
• A teleparallel model for the neutrino
• Modeling the electron with Cosserat elasticity
• Gauge Theory of Gravity and Spacetime
• E. Cartan's attempt at bridge-building between Einstein and the Cosserats -- or how translational curvature became to be known as {\em torsion}
• String theory, Einstein, and the identity of physics: Theory assessment in absence of the empirical
• Myron Mathisson: what little we know of his life
• The problem of space in the light of relativity: the views of H. Weyl and E. Cartan
• The generalization of the ADM gravitational energy-momentum
• An Extension of Teleparallelism and the Geometrization of the Electromagnetic Field
• Spectral theoretic characterization of the massless Dirac operator
• On the gravitational energy problem and the energy of photons
• Weyl's Lagrangian in teleparallel form
• Reassessing the foundations of Metric-Affine Gravity
• The meaning of torsion in teleparallel theories
• Teleparallel equivalent of general relativity: a critical review
• Is spacetime curved? Assessing the underdetermination of general relativity and teleparallel gravity
• Tangent space symmetries in general relativity and teleparallelism
• Einstein's Working Sheets and His Search For a Unified Field Theory
• Equivalence between an extension of teleparallelism to a Weyl geometry and general relativity
• Gravitational Pressure and the Accelerating Universe
• Einstein gravity from the Einstein action: Counterterms and covariance
• 4D supersymmetric gauge theories of spacetime translations
• From colored gravity to electromagnetism
• Gravitation and Electromagnetism as Geometrical Objects of a Riemann-Cartan Spacetime Structure