Gunnar Nordström

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Gunnar Nordström (12 March 1881, Helsinki – 24 December 1923, Helsinki) was a Finnish theoretical physicist who is best remembered for his theory of gravitation, which was an early competitor of general relativity.

Nordström completed his dissertation at the University of Helsinki in 1908, became a docent at the university, later worked for a couple of years in Leiden with Paul Ehrenfest, and became professor at the Helsinki 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 as Kaluza-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 as Reissner-Nordström metric.

Nordström died in December 1923 at the age of 42, possibly from exposure to radioactive substances.

[edit] See also

• Nordström's theory of gravitation

[edit] External links

• Isaksson, Eva. Gunnar Nordström. (short biography). Retrieved on August 5, 2005.

[edit] References

• Ravndal, Finn (2004). "Scalar Gravitation and Extra Dimensions" arxiv:gr-qc/0405030. Offers some historical information regarding Nordström's contributions to physics.