Max Born, Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski's Space-Time Formalism of Special Relativity

TL;DR

This paper discusses the historical development of Minkowski's space-time formalism in special relativity, highlighting its relation to Einstein's work and Minkowski's own contributions.

Contribution

It provides historical insights into Minkowski's independent realization of space-time concepts and clarifies the collaborative nature of the development of special relativity.

Findings

Minkowski independently arrived at space-time formalism before Einstein's publication.

Minkowski acknowledged Einstein's priority in recognizing the equivalence of different local times.

The paper emphasizes the collaborative and non-competitive development of special relativity.

Abstract

This note is by no means a comprehensive study of Minkowski's space-time formalism of special relativity. The mathematician, Hermann Minkowski was Einstein's former mathematics professor at the Z\"urich Polytechnic. During his studies at the Polytechnic Einstein skipped Minkowski's classes. In 1904 Max Born arrived in the first time to G\"ottingen. Many years later Born wrote his recollections. In the summer of 1905, Minkowski and Hilbert led an advanced seminar on mathematical physics, on electrodynamical theory. Minkowski told Born later that it came to him as a great shock when Einstein published his paper in which the equivalence of the different local times of observers moving relative to each other was pronounced; for he had reached the same conclusions independently. He never made a priority claim and always gave Einstein his full share in the great discovery. In his famous talk, "Space and Time" Minkowski wrote that the credit of first recognizing sharply that t and t' are to be treated the same, is of A. Einstein.