The Reception of Noether’s Second Theorem after 1950

Abstract

While the historical connection between Noether’s first theorem and its consequences for classical and quantum mechanics was not emphasized until late in the twentieth century, the connection between the fundamental result constituted by Noether’s second theorem—which has been ignored by most authors of articles and books on the calculus of variations—and general relativity was recognized more explicitly among researchers in this area and that connection was generally acknowledged in the literature since 1950. In the gauge theories that have been developed more recently, its role has also been recognized.