Scott A. Walter - Böcker

This volume explores the interplay between mathematical and physical research and the interactions of twentieth-century scientists within their academic communities. Beginning with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the authors investigate a series of dramatic discoveries and rival theories in physics that influenced the development of modern differential geometry. Other sections recount the numerous methods, like the resurgence of Weyl geometry, used by geometers to solve the problems revealed by those same innovations in space-time physics. The effect of general relativity on astronomy is also addressed, namely how astronomers worked through new theories like inflationary cosmology and Phoenix models.By including recent historical research and coupling this work with many disciplines’ unique perspectives, this text provides a rich picture of general relativity and cosmology over the course of the twentieth century. The increased study on the documentation of Einstein’s early scientific work has clarified the history of science for that time and profoundly altered the way scientists view their own work, as this interdisciplinary volume demonstrates.

This volume explores the interplay between mathematical and physical research and the interactions of twentieth-century scientists within their academic communities. Beginning with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the authors investigate a series of dramatic discoveries and rival theories in physics that influenced the development of modern differential geometry. Other sections recount the numerous methods, like the resurgence of Weyl geometry, used by geometers to solve the problems revealed by those same innovations in space-time physics. The effect of general relativity on astronomy is also addressed, namely how astronomers worked through new theories like inflationary cosmology and Phoenix models.By including recent historical research and coupling this work with many disciplines’ unique perspectives, this text provides a rich picture of general relativity and cosmology over the course of the twentieth century. The increased study on the documentation of Einstein’s early scientific work has clarified the history of science for that time and profoundly altered the way scientists view their own work, as this interdisciplinary volume demonstrates.

The lettersin this volume cover Poincaré's multifaceted career in astronomy in itsentirety, extending from the time of his first publications in 1880 to the endof his life in 1912. At a tender age, Poincaré established his authority inquestions of celestial mechanics, and his views were soon sought after on avast array of questions by the leading astronomers and geodesists of his time,including C.V.L. Charlier, G.H. Darwin, H. Faye, F.R. Helmert, G. W. Hill, A.Lindstedt, A.M. Liapunov, N. Lockyer, S. Newcomb, K. Schwarzschild, and F.Tisserand. Poincaré and his correspondents take up topics ranging from thethree-body problem and perturbation theory to the determination of the geoideand the equilibrium figures of rotating fluid masses. The volume also shedslight on Poincaré's three terms as president of the Bureau of Longitudes, wherehe guided French astronomy and geodesy through ambitious projects, such as themeasurement of an arc of meridian near Quito.------Les lettres du troisième volume de la Correspondance de Poincaré scandent toute son œuvre astronomique, allant de ses premiers mémoires sur les courbes définies par une équation différentielle (1881), jusqu'aux analyses des hypothèses cosmogoniques (1911). Encore très jeune, Poincaré s'est fait remarquer pour sa maîtrise des questions de la mécanique céleste, de tel sorte que les astronomes et les géodésiens l'ont souvent interpellé, y compris O. Callandreau, C.V.L. Charlier, G.H. Darwin, F.R. Helmert, A. Lindstedt, A.M. Lyapunov, Simon Newcomb, Karl Schwarzschild et F. Tisserand.Avec ses correspondants, Poincaré abordaient les questions principales de l'astronomie mathématique, du célèbre problème des trois corps à la théorie des perturbations et aux figures d'équilibre des masses fluides en rotation. La correspondance de Poincaré éditée et annotée dans ce volume concerne, au-delà des mémoires mathématiques, l'activité de Poincaré en tant que Professeurd'astronomie mathématique et de mécanique céleste à la Sorbonne, rédacteur en chef duBulletin astronomique, et membre du Bureau des longitudes, que Poincaré a présidé à trois reprises. Sa correspondance illumine, dans ce dernier cadre, la réalisation de la mesure d'un arc de méridien à Quito, et le règlement d'un différend franco-brittanique à propos de la différence de longitude entre Greenwich et Paris.