1 5 8 D O C U M E N T 1 6 3 N O V E M B E R 1 9 2 3
162. From Robert A. Millikan[1]
[Pasadena,] November 27, 1923
[See documentary edition for English text.]
163. From Théophile de Donder[1]
5 de l’Aurore Street, 30 November 1923
Sir and very honorable Colleague,
I have taken a lively interest in your new research that seeks to make the a priori
introduction of electrical density disappear and leads all study of the gravitational
field accompanying the pure electromagnetic field back to the ten functions
and the six functions.
I would be very glad to obtain some clarifications on the following point; you
obtain:[2]
and yet, in the old expositions[3] we had:
,
where represents the generalized potential vector. One would thus have
to have:
,
where Ψ is another arbitrary function of . When I transport these relations
into a Maxwell-Hertz field, I find them irreconcilable in a general way with the
classical relations:
gαβ
fμν
–fμν
1
β©
-- -
∂xν
∂iμ
∂xμ¹
∂iν

¨ ¸
§ ·
=
fμν
∂xν
∂Φμ
∂xμ
∂Φν
–=
Φ1…Φ4

β
--- -– Φμ
∂xμ
∂Ψ
+
x1…x4
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