ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Viennese Approach to General Relativity: A Philosophical Analysis of Guido Beck’s Exposition in the 1929 Handbuch der Physik

• In Event: Shifting Perspectives on Histories of Gravity and Mass 1

English Abstract

The fourth volume of the 1929 Handbuch der Physik encyclopedia contains a chapter on the theory of general relativity written by the Austro-Hungarian born physicist Guido Beck. Beck obtained his PhD from the University of Vienna in 1925 with a thesis that included a novel result on gravitational waves, which, however, remained forgotten until fairly recently. Despite this promising beginning, Beck did not pursue a career in general relativity. By the time the Handbuch was published, he had already shifted his efforts towards the more promising field of quantum mechanics. The chapter he contributed to the Handbuch, at the invitation of his former PhD advisor, Hans Thirring, constituted Beck’s last published work in general relativity for many years. Physics at the University of Vienna is well known for the close interplay it has had with philosophy since the time of Ernst Mach, whose philosophical inquiries influenced Einstein in the development of general relativity itself. It is also known, albeit to a lesser extent, Viennese physicists held a deep admiration for the theory of general relativity from a philosophical standpoint, which contrasts their more conservative attitude towards the developments in quantum physics. In this work, we examine to what extent Beck’s exposition of general relativity in the 1929 Handbuch der Physik reflects a distinct Viennese approach to theoretical physics. In particular, we investigate how Beck situates the status of general relativity within physics as a whole and the importance he assigns to Mach’s conjecture as a guiding principle for research in gravitational physics.

Authors

• Alexandre Sampaio da Cruz, Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF)

• Rafael Velloso Luz, Unicamp