Einstein Completes the General Theory

of Relativity

Descobertas da Física Moderna

Gabriel Almeida
(ist1102614)

Physics Department
Instituto Superior Técnico

2022
1 Summary
In 1905, Einstein completed his Special Theory of Relativity, which revolutionized the con-
cepts of space and time. He found that it is artificial to separate these quantities and instead
we should combine them in the so-called spacetime. Despite the success of special relativity,
this theory couldn’t explain gravity, so Einstein spent the following years of his life devising a
new theory of gravitation - General Relativity.
The crucial observation was the equivalence principle. Einstein realized that, at each point,
he could treat a generic gravitational field as an accelerated frame. After establishing this phys-
ical principle, he spent several years building the mathematical framework of general relativity.
The key turned out to be in the geometry of spacetime. It was a challenging problem, but
with the help of mathematician friends and racing against his rival, David Hilbert, Einstein
completed the field equations of general relativity in 1915, which marked the completion of the
theory.
Since then, general relativity has rocked our understanding of the universe. This geometric
theory of gravitation allowed us to better understand astrophysical phenomena, take a deep
look at the primordia of the universe and made way to discover and study new objects with
interesting physics.

2 Introduction
Until the 20th century, there were two types of physical interactions: electromagnetic forces,
well described by Maxwell’s theory, and gravity, which Newton had successfully explained.
Lord Kelvin even thought that “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that
remains is more and more precise measurement.” [1]
However, in 1905, while working at the Swiss Federal Patent Office, Einstein published four
remarkable papers that ignited modern physics. Accordingly, 1905 became known as his annus
mirabilis. [2] Among these papers, one of them was entitled “On the Electrodynamics of Moving
Bodies”, where Einstein presented his special theory of relativity. He found that space and time
depend on the observer - i.e., clocks tick at different rates and rulers have different lengths,
according to each observer. To make sense of this, space and time should be treated as a single
entity - spacetime.
One of the most fundamental consequences of special relativity is that nothing can travel
faster than light, including information. But this is not the case in Newton’s law of gravitation.
According to Newton, if the Sun suddenly disappeared, the Earth would instantaneously start
moving in a straight line (since free bodies move in straight lines). However, according to
special relativity, we wouldn’t immediately feel the disappearance of the Sun on Earth. We
would happily continue in our orbit for at least 8 minutes - the time the sunlight takes to reach
us. Therefore, Newtonian gravity was giving signs that it needed a successor. [3]
Although special relativity agreed with Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism, it couldn’t

1
describe gravity. It also wasn’t very convenient to study accelerated frames, only frames that
move with constant velocity (hence the word special ). For these reasons, a general theory of
relativity was needed! [4]

3 The Equivalence Principle

To better understand how Einstein started to develop this theory, we need to delve into his
genius mind and understand his way of thinking.
Einstein’s method of reasoning was quite original, he frequently used Gedankenexperiment
(“thought experiments”) to explain his concepts to others and to convince them of his proposi-
tions. To give a concrete example, we shall look at his other mirabilis article: “Does the Inertia
of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?”. In this paper, Einstein imagines a box that
emits two photons in opposite directions, each with an energy /2. Applying the principles
of special relativity, his calculations show that the mass of the box decreases by /c2 , where
c is the speed of light. This result is known as energy-mass equivalence and its mathematical
formulation is written in every physics mug and T-shirt: E = mc2 . [5]
The crucial observation for general relativity came precisely from a thought experiment.
Einstein realized that a man in a windowless falling elevator wouldn’t feel his own weight. In
fact, he wouldn’t be able to distinguish whether the elevator was falling or floating in outer
space. On the other hand, what if the elevator was indeed in outer space and accelerating
upwards? The man would feel the pressure of the floor against his feet. He would see the keys
falling if he dropped them. This is the equivalence principle in action - an accelerated frame is
equivalent to an inertial frame with a constant gravitational field.
This seemingly innocent principle is actually very rich and we can make impressive conclu-
sions, such as the bending of light. Suppose a horizontal light beam enters an elevator that is
accelerating upwards. By the time the light reaches the opposite wall, the elevator would have
moved upwards - hence the light would be closer to the ground (see figure 1). An observer
inside the elevator would see the light bend down. However, due to the equivalence principle,

Fig. 1: Thought experiment demonstrating the bending of light

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light must also bend down in a gravitational field! [6]
To sum up, the equivalence principle states that gravity is locally indistinguishable from an
accelerated frame - in essence, they are equivalent. This was the key observation for general
relativity because Einstein realized that he could treat a gravitational field, at each point, as
an accelerated frame.

4 Geometry of spacetime
After establishing the equivalence principle, Einstein managed to discover some unknown
effects, such as the bending of light, in a uniform gravitational field. His success was due to the
simplicity of a uniform gravitational field. It only required him to perform the same thought
experiment in an accelerated frame - i.e., to replace gravity with acceleration.
However, there are more complicated gravitational fields, like that of the Sun, whose direc-
tion and intensity change from point to point. Thus, Einstein faced a quite challenging problem
- he had to perform a different transformation at every point in space.
In 1912, while working at the ETH in Zurich, Einstein told his old mathematician friend,
Grossman, about his problem. For his luck, Grossman was aware of a theory of very general
transformations developed in the nineteenth century by Gauss, Riemann, Christoffel, Ricci, and
Levi-Civita. Together, they adapted this theory - which can be called “Differential Geometry
of the Riemann Space” - to Einstein’s problem. [4] Their efforts culminated in the first draft of
general relativity, in which gravity was thought of as the curvature of spacetime, instead of as
a force. This theory became known as “Entwurf” (outline, draft) from the title of the paper. [7]
But what is meant by the curvature of spacetime? It is easier to explain first what is the
curvature of a Riemann space.
A Riemann space is, in a sense, a generalization of a surface and can be described with a
coordinate system. For example, we can use cartesian coordinates x, y to describe a flat sheet.
Using the Pythagorean theorem, the distance ds between (x, y) and (x + dx, y + dy) can be
written as ! !
  1 0 dx
ds2 = dx2 + dy 2 = dx dy .
0 1 dy
| {z }
g(x,y)

We can also use polar coordinates and in that case

! !
  1 0 dr
ds2 = dr2 + r2 dθ2 = dr dθ .
0 r2 dθ
| {z }
g(r,θ)

The matrix g is called the metric and it contains the information about the geometry of the
space, in particular of its curvature. A Riemann space is flat (has zero curvature) if there is some
coordinate system in which the metric is the identity matrix (i.e., the Pythagorean theorem
holds). [8] However, it may be possible that no such coordinates exist. A simple example would

3
be the surface of the Earth: using longitude (θ) and latitude (α) as coordinates, the metric is
!
r2 0
g(α, θ) = ,
0 r2 cos2 α

where r is the radius of the Earth. It can be shown that there isn’t any coordinate system in
which the metric is the identity.1
Returning to the world of relativity, spacetime is a pseudo-Riemann2 space with four coor-
dinates - one timelike and three spacelike. For those who took a special relativity course, the
space-time interval plays the role of the distance and the flat spacetime is Minkowski’s; i.e., the
“identity” matrix is  
−1 0 0 0
 
 0 1 0 0
η=
 0 0 1 0 .

 
0 0 0 1

5 The Field Equations

Although Einstein knew the failure of the 1913 “Entwurf” theory - for example, in explaining
the anomalous rotation of Mercury’s trajectory - he continued to work on this theory. The
missing step was to find the equations that describe how matter creates gravitational fields -
the field equations.
In 1915, at the invitation of David Hilbert, Einstein gave a weeklong series of lectures at the
Göttingen in Germany, exposing his ideas of general relativity. Hilbert was a very influential
mathematician and became interested in the problem that Einstein was trying to solve. And
so a rivalry emerged, and the two raced in the following months, trying to find the correct field
equations.
There was a very intense final sprint in November. In the weekly meetings of the Prussian
Academy, Einstein presented various versions of his theory. On the 25th November session, the
correct equations finally arose. However, five days earlier, David Hilbert had already submitted
a paper to the Göttingen Academy of Science with an axiomatic derivation of general relativity
field equations. The title Hilbert chose for his paper wasn’t a modest one - “The Foundations
of Physics”. [9]
Even though David Hilbert presented the field equations first, it was Einstein’s theory that
was trying to be formalized, which he had explained to Hilbert in Göttingen, during the summer
of 1915. Hilbert recognized this in the last version of his paper: “The differential equations of
gravitation that result are, as it seems to me, in agreement with the magnificent theory of
general relativity established by Einstein.” He later summarized it as “Einstein did the work
and not the mathematicians.” [6]
1
Although for every point, there is a coordinate system in which the metric is approximately the identity in a
vicinity of that point (the surface looks flat, locally)
2
The term pseudo is because it admits negative line elements ds2

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6 The Legacy of General Relativity
The first experimental evidence of general relativity was the explanation of the anomalous
rotation of Mercury’s orbit and the prediction that light would be deflected by massive objects.
The latter was observed by Arthur Eddington, during the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919.
When these results were announced, the renowned physicist J.J. Thomson described general
relativity not as an isolated result but as “a whole continent of scientific ideas.” [10]
And indeed general relativity didn’t fail Thomson’s expectations. Besides bending light,
gravity also affects light energy (i.e., frequency) - a photon shot upwards on Earth loses some
energy and thus its frequency is shifted towards the red (redshift). As a matter of fact, time
itself runs slower in the presence of gravity. Today, the inclusion of this effect is vital for the
accuracy of our friendly GPS. [11]
Another prediction of general relativity is the formation of black holes whenever an object
becomes too compact. A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even
light, can escape. As a result, this object is black to our eyes and apparatus. Due to its strong
gravitational field that bends light, light can stably orbit around a black hole. Below is the
first image ever taken of a black hole, in 2019. [12]

Fig. 2: First image of a black hole. Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1907a/

General relativity also predicted gravitational waves - disturbances in the curvature of space-
time that propagate at the speed of light. In 2015, LIGO detected for the first time gravitational
waves, which were generated by the collision of two black holes. [13] Despite the huge energy of
this event, a very precise detector was needed - according to LIGO Caltech, LIGO can “detect a
change in distance between its mirrors 1/10,000th the width of a proton! This is equivalent to
measuring the distance to the nearest star (some 4.2 light years away) to an accuracy smaller
than the width of a human hair.” [14]
Finally, general relativity is the framework of cosmology - the study of the origin and
evolution of the universe. It allowed cosmologists to explain the expansion of the universe, and
to discover dark matter and dark energy, although its composition remains a mystery of the
cosmos.

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7 Conclusions
We can now look at the big picture and identify three major steps in the development of
general relativity.

1. The equivalence principle - Einstein discovered the connection between gravity and ac-
celeration

2. The geometry of spacetime - Einstein and Grossman studied the geometry of spacetime
since it was the key to explaining gravity

3. Field equations - Einstein and Hilbert found the correct equations for the gravitational
field created by matter and energy

This road took ten years to be unraveled. It required a huge intellectual effort, but the result
was one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century. Besides rocking our
understanding of fundamental physics, it proved to be a rich framework for other fields, such
as cosmology and astrophysics. It also predicted important effects and objects that allowed us
to look for new physics.
However, another great discovery of the 20th century is quantum mechanics, which describes
the world at the subatomic scales. The problem is that general relativity is incompatible with
quantum mechanics at a very fundamental level. Thus some physicists are trying to achieve a
theory that would unify the two worlds. [15]
In conclusion, general relativity is a fascinating theory of gravitation, but there is still room
for improvement in its connection to other domains of physics.

6
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[4] S. Brandt. The Harvest of a Century: Discoveries in Modern Physics in 100 Episodes.
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[5] A. Einstein. Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content? Annalen der Physik,
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