Einstein on involutions in projective geometry (Q822759)

There exists a bulk of literature addressing the question of Einstein's knowledge of mathematics in dependence on his respective physical interests at different periods of his life. Such, one would hardly expect new insights in this connection. But there are two pages of Einstein's Scratch Notebook from around 1912 with sketches on projective geometry that ``directly can be associated with similar sketches in manuscript pages dating from his Princeton years''. The authors found this circumstance interesting enough to discuss Einstein's knowledge of projective geometry in the present paper. After a detailed analysis of the historical material, they believe to recognize ``a network of relations between the sketches and calculations, both in the Scratch Notebook and the Princeton manuscripts''. Also, motivated by formulations in the correspondence between Einstein and Bergmann from summer 1938, they conclude that Einstein was doing the constructions and calculations with a certain purpose in mind. Their conjecture is: ``Einstein tried to find particle-like solutions within the framework of his five-dimensional approach at that time.'' (This means solutions of generalizations of Kaluza's five-dimensional theory of electricity, presented by \textit{A. Einstein} and \textit{P. Bergmann} [Ann. Math. (2) 39, 683--701 (1938; JFM 64.0770.03); with \textit{V. Bargmann}, in: Theodore von Karman Anniversary Volume. Pasadena, CA: California Institute of Technology. 212--225 (1941; Zbl 0063.01230)].)