- Gunnar Nordström
Gunnar Nordström (
12 March 1881 ,Helsinki –24 December 1923 , Helsinki) was a Finnish theoretical physicist who is best remembered for his theory ofgravitation , which was an early competitor ofgeneral relativity .Nordström completed his dissertation at the
University of Helsinki in 1908, became adocent at the university, later worked for a couple of years inLeiden withPaul Ehrenfest , and became professor at theHelsinki University of Technology in 1918.In 1914 Nordström introduced an additional space dimension to his theory, which simultaneously described gravity and
electromagnetism . This was the first of extra dimensional theories, later known asKaluza-Klein theory .During the time in Leiden Nordström solved the field equations for the spherically symmetric charged body, thus extending the
Hans Reissner 's results for a point charge. The metric for a nonrotating charge distribution is nowadays known asReissner-Nordström metric .Nordström died in December 1923 at the age of 42, possibly from exposure to
radioactive substances.See also
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Nordström's theory of gravitation External links
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References
*cite arXiv | author=Ravndal, Finn | title=Scalar Gravitation and Extra Dimensions | year=2004 | eprint=gr-qc/0405030 Offers some historical information regarding Nordström's contributions to physics.
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