Establishment of the Riemannian structure of space-time by classical means (Q1923990)

Several years ago, \textit{J. Ehlers, F. A. E. Pirani} and \textit{A. Schild} [The geometry of free fall and light propagation. General Relativity, Papers Honour J. L. Synge, 63-84 (1972; Zbl 0267.53036)] brought forward an axiomatic approach to spacetime theory using light rays and freely falling particles as primitive concepts. This approach led in a satisfactory way to Weyl manifolds as spacetime models. However, an additional axiom leading to pseudo-Riemannian manifolds and thus to the usual formalism of general relativity, was considered less convincing. In the article under review a new version of such an additional axiom is presented. Whereas earlier attempts in this direction used elements from wave mechanics, the new version is formulated in terms of a radar experiment, i.e., the pseudo-Riemannian structure of spacetime is ``established by classical means''.