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The Reception of the Special Relativity in Europe

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Poincaré, Einstein and the Discovery of Special Relativity

Part of the book series: History of Physics ((HIPHY))

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Abstract

In the previous three chapters, it was established that Poincaré had laid the foundations of the special theory of relativity long before Einstein. Nevertheless, it is under the name of Einstein’s theory of relativity that it is known today. The aim of this chapter is therefore to analyze the reception of Poincaré’s and Einstein’s work in the scientific community in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Italy, based on the presence or absence of quotations from their 1905 contributions. We’ll show how Einstein’s name came to be associated with this theory, rather than Poincaré’s.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Fields Medal is the most prestigious award in mathematics, alongside the Abel Prize. It is considered equivalent to a Nobel Prize, which does not exist for this discipline. It has been awarded every four years since 1936 during the International Congress of Mathematicians to a maximum of four mathematicians, all under the age of 40.

  2. 2.

    The following year, this was the title Poincaré gave to his note at the C.R.A.S. and memoir at the Rendiconti.

  3. 3.

    Several of his physicist friends, including Jean Perrin, had advised him against publishing this result, which was contrary to previously accepted notions.

  4. 4.

    Diana Kormos Buchwald, Tilman Sauer, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, Jószef Illy, Virginia Iris Holmes, Jeroen van Dongen, Daniel Kennefick, and A.J. Kox, ed., The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 10. The Berlin Years: Correspondence, May-December 1920 and Supplementary Correspondence 1909-1920. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).

  5. 5.

    Lorentz quotes Bucherer [8].

  6. 6.

    Lorentz quotes Planck [34, 39, 41].

  7. 7.

    Righi quotes Lorentz [30], Einstein [13], Abraham [2] but not Poincaré’s work [44, 45].

  8. 8.

    Hermann Minkowski, “Spazio e tempo,” Il Nuovo Cimento, 18, pp. 333–352, 1909.

  9. 9.

    Volterra quotes Poincaré’s memoir at the Rendiconti.

  10. 10.

    It is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifications that denote an ability (facultas docendi) and permission to teach. The title of Privatdozent is comparable to that of Associate Professor (North America), Senior Lecturer (United Kingdom), or maître de conférences (France).

  11. 11.

    It is important to note that this text in tribute to Poincaré, who died prematurely in 1912, had been written by Lorentz in 1914 and was due to be published in Acta Mathematica the following year. The First World War delayed publication by six years.

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  1. Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, UMR 7332, Université de Toulon, La Valette du Var, France

    Jean-Marc Ginoux

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Ginoux, JM. (2024). The Reception of the Special Relativity in Europe. In: Poincaré, Einstein and the Discovery of Special Relativity. History of Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51387-9_9

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