Max Abraham's and Tullio Levi-Civita's approach to Einstein Theory of Relativity

• Main Author: Valentini, Michele Mattia <1984>
• Other Authors: Graffi, Sandro
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: en
• Published: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna 2014
• Subjects: MAT/07 Fisica matematica
• Online Access: http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/6421/

This work deals with the theory of Relativity and its diffusion in Italy in the first decades of the XX century. Not many scientists belonging to Italian universities were active in understanding Relativity, but two of them, Max Abraham and Tullio Levi-Civita left a deep mark. Max Abraham engaged a substantial debate against Einstein between 1912 and 1914 about electromagnetic and gravitation aspects of the theories. Levi-Civita played a fundamental role in giving Einstein the correct mathematical instruments for the General Relativity formulation since 1915. This work, which doesn't have the aim of a mere historical chronicle of the events, wants to highlight two particular perspectives: on one hand, the importance of Abraham-Einstein debate in order to clarify the basis of Special Relativity, to observe the rigorous logical structure resulting from a fragmentary reasoning sequence and to understand Einstein's thinking; on the other hand, the originality of Levi-Civita's approach, quite different from the Einstein's one, characterized by the introduction of a method typical of General Relativity even to Special Relativity and the attempt to hide the two Einstein Special Relativity postulates.