ALS signed “A. Einstein,” one page, 8.5 x 11, [postmarked November 15, 1928]. Handwritten letter to German mathematician Chaim Herman Muntz, in part (translated): "I am at present in Gatow (directly across from the Kaiser Wilh. Tower and on the Havel, Lemke Estate, chauffeur’s apartment), and have been calculating very busily. I have found the following: [mathematical equations].
1) The solution [mathematical equations] indeed satisfies the field equations.
2) Taking the electric field into account, I have thus far not been able to solve the centrally symmetric case, owing to its complexity. Even solving the variation problem with coordinates fixed before the variation is too complicated for me. But I will keep trying.
3) For the case [mathematical equations] no real centrally symmetric static gravitational solution exists; for the case [mathematical equations] it is indeterminate. It therefore appears to be fairly certain that the invariant is correctly chosen, if there is anything at all true in the whole theory. Everything now depends on the exact solution of the electric problem." He adds a postscript, in full: "I will stay here for about another week." In very fine condition, with an ink stain to the upper right blank area. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Einstein's own hand.
Published as part of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 16: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, June 1927-May 1929 (English Translation Supplement), Document 314, p. 305.
Einstein began his correspondence with Muntz in 1927, and in 1928 was writing to him on 'distant parallelism,' an extension of Riemannian geometry in which new mathematical objects, called 'tetrads' are introduced, which allow for the comparison of the direction of vectors at distant points of the spacetime. This letter relates to those investigations, which Einstein felt to be important as a mathematical attempt at a unified field theory—the incorporation of electromagnetism and gravitation in a single field theory. Although he published a number of papers on the subject from 1928 to 1931, the work is considered inaccurate and not recognized by physicists of today.
During this period Einstein was working closely with colleagues Herman Muntz and Cornelius Lantz on formalizing the 'Unified Field Theory of Gravitational Force and Electromagnetism.' Einstein’s article 'On Unified Field Theory' was presented on January 10, 1929, and published on January 30, 1929, by the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In the article he discloses the final stages of the development of this theory, and it reveals critical stages in the solution that he presents. The theory tried to achieve one unified formula that would unite the electromagnetic and gravitational fields and present them as different manifestations of a single universal force. At the article's close, Einstein expresses appreciation for Muntz's assistance: 'It is my pleasant duty to thank Dr. H. Müntz for his laboriously precise calculation of the centrally symmetric problem on the basis of Hamilton’s principle the results of his calculation suggested to me the method used here.'
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