The Spirit of Unification: The Wei of Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the historical development of unifying theories in physics, focusing on early 20th-century efforts to unify gravity and electromagnetism, and relates them to modern 'theories of everything.'

Contribution

It provides a historical perspective on unification efforts in physics, highlighting their evolution and conceptual similarities to current grand unification theories.

Findings

Historical unification attempts aimed at combining gravity and electromagnetism.

Early 20th-century theories influenced modern 'theories of everything'.

Highlights the conceptual continuity in unification efforts over time.

Abstract

We review, in a historical perspective, developments in physics which led to the emergence of unifying ideas and theories. Some attention is paid to the theoretical programme that started in the second decade of the XXth century and whose objective was to reach a unified description of gravity and electromagnetism. These attempts can be regarded as conceptually akin to the contemporary "theories of everything" which aim to unify all interactions of Nature.