A brief history of the energy-momentum tensor 1912-1915: Einstein physicist’s logic in compromising gravitation with relativity

Abstract : In MG13 (Stockholm 2012) we discussed how the history (1900-1911) of relativistic dynamics was intimately linked to issues concerning energy momentum tensors, in particular the electromagnetic one. Here we examine how, for Einstein, the expected properties of the matter and gravitational field tensors have been sources of inspiration strongly conditioning his quest for a relativistic description of gravitation. It is in this physical framework already present in 1912 that in competition with Hilbert at the fall of 1915, he thinks to have justified general covariance.