Abstract EN:

The role of mathematicians in the discovery, reception and development of the non-gravitational theory of relativity is studied from the angle of hermann minkowski's work. It is argued that minkowski effectively expanded the disciplinary frontier of mathematics to include the principle of relativity, thereby paving the way for mathematical engagement with the theory of relativity. This view finds support from a bibliometric analysis, in which europeanlanguage publications on non-gravitational relativity are correlated against author discipline and geographic location, as well as periodical type and site of publication. Minkowski's manuscripts shed light on his discovery of space-time mechanics, and show that prior to november, 1907, he was not in possession of the notion of a worldline in spacetime. Following minkowski's death, the extension of the concept of rigidity to space-time kinematics was attempted by his followers, including theodor kaluza, who in 1910 studied the riemannian geometry of a rigidly-rotating disk, incorporating an approach resembling that of the general theory of relativity discovered two years later by albert einstein. From the frequency with which non-euclidean geometry was encountered in the scientific literature of this period, einstein's choice of a riemannian space-time metric as the foundation of the theory of general relativity takes its place as a natural response to the elaboration of minkowskian kinematics. In this order of ideas, by the turn of the century, henri poincare's conventionalist doctrine appears to have obtained few disciples among leading continental mathematicians ; with the advent of minkowskian relativity, several scientists found a confirmation of their views on the necessity of an empirical determination of the geometry of space.