Minkowski, mathematicians, and the mathematical theory of relativity (Q4938992)

Concluding remarks: Minkowski's semi-popular Cologne lecture was an audacious attempt, seconded by Göttingen mathematicians and their allies, to change the way scientists understood the principle of relativity. Henceforth, this principle lent itself to a geometric conception, in terms of the intersections of world-lines in space-time. Considered as a sales pitch to mathematicians, Minkowski's speech appears to have been very effective, in light of the substantial post-1909 increase in mathematical familiarity with the theory of relativity. Minkowski's lecture was also instrumental in attracting the attention of physicists to the principle of relativity. The Göttingen theorists Walter Ritz, Max Born and Max Abraham were the first to recommend Minkowski's formalism, and following Sommerfeld's intervention, the space-time theory seduced Max von Laue and eventually even Paul Ehrenfest, both of whom had strong ties to Göttingen. For a mathematician of Minkowski's stature there was little glory to be had in dotting the i's on the theory discovered by a mathematically unsophisticated, unknown, unchaired youngster. In choosing to publish his space-time theory, Minkowski put his personal reputation at stake, along with that of his university, whose identification with the effort to develop the electromagnetic world picture was well established. As a professor of mathematics in Göttingen, Minkowski engaged the reputation of German mathematics, if not that of mathematics in general. From both a personal and a disciplinary point of view, it was essential for Minkowski to show his work to be different from that of Lorentz and Einstein. At the same time, the continuity of his theory with those advanced by the theoretical physicists was required in order to overcome his lack of authority in physics. This tension led Minkowski to assimilate Einstein's kinematics with those of Lorentz's electron theory, contrary to his understanding of the difference between these two theories. Minkowski was ultimately unable to detach his theory from that of Einstein, because even if he convinced some mathematicians that his work stood alone, the space-time theory came to be understood by most German physicists as a purely formal development of Einstein's theory. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0924.00026].