THE MATHISSON-PAPAPETROU EQUATIONS

MATHISSON, MYRON.

Die Beharrungsgesetze in der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (+) Die Mechanik des Materieteilchens in der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie.

Berlin, Springer, 1931. 8vo. In contemporary halv cloth with gilt lettering to spine. In "Zeitschrift für Physik", Bd. 67, 1931. Entire volume offered. Stamp to front free end-paper and title page, otherwise fine and clean. Pp. 270-77; pp. 826-844. [Entire volume: VIII, 863 pp.].

First printing of Mathisson's two important papers (being his two first published papers ever) in which he presented the correct formulation of equations of motion of spinning bodies in general relativity today known as the Mathisson-Papapetrou equations. The two papers is essentially Mathisson's Ph.D. thesis since the original thesis not has been preserved.
The Einstein-Mayer theory of 1932, the equations of motion of a spinning particle, is derived from the generalized field equations and are essentially the same as the Mathisson-Papapetrou equations.
Those papers contain an implicit polemic with Einstein and his approach to the problem of motion. The first paper contains an essential generalization of Einstein's linearization of the field equation. Mathisson allows the back-ground metric to be curved. In the second Mathisson shows that nonlinearity of the field equation is not essential for obtaining from them the equations of motion. (Sauer, Myron Mathisson: What little we know of his life).

Order-nr.: 49391