View source for List of contributors to general relativity

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This is a dynamic list of persons who have made ''major'' contributions to the (mainstream) development of [[general relativity]], as acknowledged by standard texts on the subject.  Some related lists are mentioned at the bottom of the page.
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==A==
* [[Peter C. Aichelburg]] ([[Aichelburg–Sexl ultraboost]], generalized symmetries),
* [[Miguel Alcubierre]] ([[numerical relativity]], [[Alcubierre drive|Alcubierre drives]]),
* [[Richard Arnowitt|Richard L. Arnowitt]] ([[ADM formalism]]),
* [[Abhay Ashtekar]] ([[Ashtekar variables]], dynamical horizons)

==B==
[[File:JamesMBardeen1980.jpg|thumb|216x216px|James M. Bardeen]]
* [[Robert M L Baker, Jr.]] (high-frequency gravitational waves),
* [[James M. Bardeen]] (Bardeen vacuum, [[black hole mechanics]], gauge-invariant linear perturbations of Friedmann-Lemaître cosmologies),
* [[Barry Barish]] ([[LIGO]] builder, gravitational-waves observation),
* [[Robert Bartnik]] (existence of ADM mass for asymptotically flat vacuums, quasilocal mass),
* [[Jacob Bekenstein]] ([[black hole entropy]]),
* [[Vladimir A. Belinsky]] ([[BKL conjecture]], [[inverse scattering transform]] solution generating methods),
* [[Peter G. Bergmann]] (constrained Hamiltonian dynamics),
* [[Bruno Bertotti]] (Bertotti–Robinson electrovacuum),
* [[Jiří Bičák]] ([[exact solutions]] of [[Einstein field equations]]),
* [[Heinz Billing]] (prototype of laser interferometric gravitational-wave detector),
* [[George David Birkhoff]] ([[Birkhoff's theorem (relativity)|Birkhoff's theorem]]),
* [[Hermann Bondi]] (gravitational radiation, Bondi radiation chart, Bondi mass–energy–momentum, LTB dust, maverick models),
* [[William B. Bonnor]] ([[Bonnor beam]] solution),
* Robert H. Boyer ([[Boyer–Lindquist coordinates]]),
* [[Vladimir Braginsky]] (gravitational-wave detector, quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement)
* [[Carl H. Brans]] (Brans–Dicke theory),
* [[Hubert Bray]] ([[Riemannian Penrose inequality]]),
* [[Hans Adolph Buchdahl]] (Buchdahl fluid, Buchdahl theorem),
* [[Claudio Bunster]] (BTZ black hole, Surface terms in Hamiltonian formulation),
* [[William L. Burke]] (Burke potential, textbook)

==C==

[[File:Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat.jpeg|thumb|Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat]]
* [[Bernard Carr]] (self-similarity hypothesis, [[primordial black holes]]),
* [[Brandon Carter]] ([[no-hair theorem]], [[Carter constant]], black-hole mechanics, variational principle for Ernst vacuums),
* [[Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar]] ([[Chandrasekhar limit]], colliding plane waves, quasinormal modes, relativistic stars, monograph<ref group="note">''The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes''.</ref>),
* [[Jean Chazy]] (Chazy-Curzon vacuum),
* [[Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat]] (formerly Yvonne Bruhat; local existence and uniqueness of solutions to the vacuum Einstein equations, initial value formulations, textbook),
* [[Demetrios Christodoulou]] (naked singularity in LTB dust, stability of Minkowski vacuum),
* [[Orest Khvolson|Orest Chwolson]] ([[Gravitational lens|gravitational lensing]]),
* [[Alejandro Corichi]] (fundamental contributions to quantum gravity and quantum loop gravity)

==D==

[[File:StanleyDeser2009 01.jpg|thumb|180x180px|Stanley Deser]]
* [[Thibault Damour]] (gravitational radiation),
* [[Georges Darmois]] (matching conditions, Darmois vacuum),
* [[Stanley Deser]] (ADM initial value formulation, effective field theory),
* [[Bryce DeWitt]] ([[Wheeler–DeWitt equation]]),
* [[Robert H. Dicke]] (Brans–Dicke theory, parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism, background radiation),
* [[Paul A.M. Dirac]] ([[graviton]], monograph),
* [[Tevian Dray]] (asymptotic structure, gravitational shock waves),
* [[Ronald Drever]] ([[LIGO]], [[gravitational-wave detector]]s and observation)

<br />
==E==
[[File:Arthur Stanley Eddington.jpg|thumb|230x230px|Arthur Stanley Eddington]]
* [[Arthur Stanley Eddington]] (early treatises,<ref group="note">''Mathematical Theory of Relativity'' and ''Internal Constitution of the Stars''.</ref> relativistic stars, [[Eddington–Finkelstein coordinates]], role of curvature, parametrized post-Newtonian formalism, popularization of general relativity),
* [[Jürgen Ehlers]] (Ehlers vacuum family, symmetries of pp waves, spacetime view of gravitational lensing, Newtonian limit),
* [[Albert Einstein]] (creator of general relativity, [[Equivalence principle|principle of equivalence]], [[Einstein field equations]], [[gravitational time dilation]], [[gravitational redshift]], [[Gravitational lens|gravitational lensing]], [[gravitational wave|gravitational waves]], [[Apsidal precession|perihelion of Mercury]], [[cosmological constant]], [[Einstein–Infeld–Hoffmann equations]], [[Wormhole|Einstein–Rosen bridge]]),
* [[George F. R. Ellis]] (relativistic cosmological models, classification of curvature singularities, averaging problem in cosmology, gauge-invariant linear perturbations of spatially homogeneous cosmologies, "small universes," [[The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time|monograph]], Virbhadra–Ellis lens equation),
* [[Frederick J. Ernst]] (Ernst vacuum family, [[Ernst equation]], solution generating methods, Ernst–Wild electrovacuum),
* [[Loránd Eötvös]] (Weak Equivalence Principle experiment)

==F==
[[File:Enrico Fermi giovane.jpg|thumb|251x251px|Enrico Fermi]]
* [[Enrico Fermi]] ([[Fermi coordinates]], [[Fermi–Walker transport]]),
* [[Richard Feynman]] ([[sticky bead argument]] [as 'Mr. Smith'], supermassive stars, derivation of the Einstein field equations from quantum field theory, Feynman Lectures on Gravitation),
* [[David Finkelstein]] (Eddington–Finkelstein coordinates),
* [[Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock]] (textbook, [[Harmonic coordinate condition|harmonic coordinates]]),
* [[Robert L. Forward]] (gravitational-wave detectors),
* [[William A. Fowler]] (relativistic stellar models, gravitational collapse),
* [[Alexander Friedmann]] ([[Friedmann equations|Friedmann cosmological models]])

==G==
* [[Robert P. Geroch]] ([[Geroch group]], [[singularity theorem]]s, [[GHP formalism]]),
* [[Kurt Gödel]] ([[Gödel dust|Gödel dust solution]], [[closed timelike curve]]s),
* [[Robert H. Gowdy]] ([[Gowdy solution]]s),
* [[Marcel Grossmann]] (taught Einstein the necessary mathematical tools for general relativity),
* [[Allvar Gullstrand]] ([[Gullstrand–Painlevé coordinates]])

==H==
* [[Yusuke Hagihara]] ([[Schwarzschild geodesics]]),
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20210418075401/https://staff.emu.edu.tr/mustafahalilsoy/tr Mustafa Halilsoy] Nutku-Halil solution for colliding waves, [https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.1984.0108 On the Nutku—Halil solution for colliding impulsive gravitational waves]
* [[James Hartle]] ([[quantum cosmology]], textbook),
* [[Stephen W. Hawking]] ([[Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems|Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems]], [[Hawking radiation]], [[Black hole thermodynamics|black-hole thermodynamics]], [[The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time|monograph]], [[Gibbons–Hawking–York boundary term|Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term]]),
* [[Charles W. Hellaby]] ([[cosmological models]]),
* [[David Hilbert]] ([[Einstein–Hilbert action|Hilbert's action principle]]),
* [[Banesh Hoffmann]] ([[Einstein–Infeld–Hoffmann equations|EIH approximation]]),
* [[Fred Hoyle]] (steady-state cosmology),
* [[Russell Hulse]] ([[Hulse–Taylor binary|Hulse–Taylor pulsar]])

==I==
* [[Leopold Infeld]] ([[Einstein–Infeld–Hoffmann equations]]),
* [[Richard Isaacson]] (energy–momentum complex),
* [[James A. Isenberg]] (initial value formulations, gluing construction),
* [[Werner Israel]] (no-hair theorem, tidal forces around black hole singularities, black hole interiors and mass inflation)

==J==
* [[Theodore Jacobson]] (thermodynamic derivation of Einstein's field equation),
* [[Jørg Tofte Jebsen]] ([[Birkhoff's theorem (relativity)|Birkhoff's theorem]]),
* [[George Barker Jeffery]] (Baldwin–Jeffery plane wave),
* [[Pascual Jordan]] ([[Brans–Dicke theory|Jordan–Brans–Dicke theory]])

==K==
[[File:Roy Kerr 2016 03.jpg|thumb|180x180px|Roy Patrick Kerr]]
* [[Niky Kamran]] (Wave equations in black hole space-times),
* [[Ronald Kantowski]] (Kantowski-Sachs fluids),
* Anders Karlhede ([[Cartan–Karlhede algorithm|Cartan–Karlhede classification]]),
* [[Edward Kasner]] (Kasner dust solution),
* [[Roy Kerr|Roy Patrick Kerr]] ([[Kerr vacuum]], [[Kerr–Schild perturbations|Kerr–Schild metrics]], use of [[Lie group|Lie groups]] in relativity, Kerr–Farnsworth ansatz),
* [[Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov]] (BKL conjecture),
* [[William Morris Kinnersley]] (photon rocket),
* [[Sergiu Klainerman]] (global stability of [[Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski vacuum]]),
* [[Oskar Klein]] (Klein fluid, [[Kaluza–Klein theory|Kaluza–Klein theories]]),
* [[Arthur Komar]] (Komar energy–momentum integrals),
* [[Erich Kretschmann]] ([[Kretschmann invariant]]),
* [[Martin Kruskal]] ([[Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates]] for [[Schwarzschild vacuum]]),
* [[Wolfgang Kundt]] (EK classification of symmetries of pp waves)

==L==
[[File:Landau.jpg|thumb|255x255px|Lev Landau]]
* [[Cornelius Lanczos]] ([[Lanczos tensor]], [[van Stockum dust|Lanczos–van Stockum dust]]),
* [[Lev D. Landau]] (Landau–Lifshitz formulation, textbook<ref name=":0" group="note">See ''Course on Theoretical Physics'', [[Course of Theoretical Physics#Volume 2|Volume 2]].</ref>),
* [[Georges Lemaître|Georges-Henri Lemaître]] (cosmological model, LTB dust, Lemaître chart on Schwarzschild vacuum),
* [[Josef Lense]] (Lense–Thirring precession),
* [[Tullio Levi-Civita]] (static vacuums, C-metric; see also related list below),
* [[André Lichnerowicz]] (3+1 formalism, matching conditions, Lichnerowicz equation),
* [[Evgeny M. Lifshitz]] (Landau–Lifschitz gravitational energy–momentum complex, BKL conjecture, textbook<ref name=":0" group="note" />),
* [[Alan P. Lightman]] (problem book),
* [[Casey Lilly]] (gravitational wave theory in general relativity)
* [[Hendrik Lorentz]] ([[Hamilton's principle]], [[coordinate-free]] formulation),
* [[David Lovelock]] ([[Lovelock theory of gravity|Lovelock theory]], [[Lovelock's theorem]])

==M==
[[File:Hermann Minkowski Portrait.jpg|thumb|242x242px|Hermann Minkowski]]
* [[Raymond McLenaghan|R. G. McLenaghan]] ([[Carminati–McLenaghan invariants|CM invariants]]),
* [[Reinhard Meinel]] (Neugebauer–Meinel dust disk solution),
* [[Hermann Minkowski]] ([[Minkowski space|Minkowski spacetime]]),
* [[Charles W. Misner]] (mixmaster model, ADM initial value formulation, ADM mass, [[Gravitation (book)|textbook]])
* [[John Moffat (physicist)|John Moffat]] (various classical gravitation theories)
* [[Vincent Moncrief]] (global properties of spatially compact dynamical vacuum spacetimes),
* [[C. Møller]] (energy–momentum complex),
* [[Moustafa Mosharafa]] (relation of radiation, mass and energy)

<br />
==N==
* [[:de:Gernot Neugebauer|Gernot Neugebauer]] (Neugebauer–Meinel dust disk solution),
* [[Ezra Ted Newman]] (Newman–Penrose formalism, [[Kerr–Newman metric|Kerr–Newman black hole solution]], Janis–Newman–Winicour solution, NUT vacuum, RT spacetimes, relation of lensing to Weyl tensor),
* [[Gunnar Nordström]] ([[Reissner–Nordström metric]]),
* [[Kenneth Nordtvedt]] ([[Nordtvedt effect]], [[Parameterized post-Newtonian formalism|PPN formalism]]),
* [[Igor D. Novikov]] (Novikov chart in Schwarzschild vacuum, no-hair theorem, accretion disks around black holes, monograph)
* [https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=68890 Yavuz Nutku] Nutku-Halil solution for colliding waves, [https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.1984.0108 On the Nutku—Halil solution for colliding impulsive gravitational waves]

==O==
* [[Robert Oppenheimer]] (gravitational collapse, [[Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit]], Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) equation, [[Oppenheimer–Snyder model]]),
* [[Amos Ori]] (black hole interiors, time machines, radiation reaction, gravitational collapse)

==P==<!-- This section is linked from [[Roger Penrose]] -->
[[File:Roger Penrose 9560.JPG|thumb|271x271px|Roger Penrose]]
* [[Achilles Papapetrou]] (chart for Ernst vacuum family, Majumdar–Papapetrou electrovacuums, [[Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations|Dixon–Papapetrou equations]]),
* [[Paul Painlevé]] ([[Gullstrand–Painlevé coordinates]]),
* [[Roger Penrose]] (Hawking–Penrose singularity theorems, [[Penrose diagram|Penrose diagrams]], techniques from algebraic geometry and differential topology, Penrose limits, cosmic censorship hypotheses, Penrose inequalities, geometry of gravitational plane waves, impulsive waves, Penrose–Khan colliding plane wave, Newman–Penrose formalism, Weyl curvature hypothesis, highly influential monograph<ref group="note">''Techniques of Differential Topology in Relativity''.</ref>),
* [[A. Z. Petrov|Alexei Zinovievich Petrov]] ([[Petrov classification]] of algebraic properties of Weyl curvature tensor),
* [[Tsvi Piran]] (gravitational collapse),
* [[Felix A. E. Pirani]] (gravitational radiation, Petrov–Pirani classification of algebraic properties of Weyl curvature tensor),
* [[Jerzy Plebański|Jerzy F. Plebański]] (Plebanski vacuum, [[Plebanski action]]),
* [[Eric Poisson]] (black hole interiors, mass inflation, post-Newtonian approximation, monographs<ref group="note">''A Relativist's Toolkit: The Mathematics of Black-hole Mechanics'' and ''Gravity: Newtonian, Post-Newtonian, Relativistic'' (with Clifford M. Will).</ref>),
* [[William H. Press]] (gravitational-wave astronomy, problem book),
* [[Frans Pretorius]] ([[numerical relativity]] simulation),
* [[Richard H. Price]] (Price's theorem, books)

==R==
* [[George Yuri Rainich]] (Rainich conditions),
* [[A. K. Raychaudhuri]] ([[Raychaudhuri equation]]),
* [[Tullio Regge]] (Regge calculus),
* [[Hans Reissner]] ([[Reissner–Nordström metric]]),
* [[Wolfgang Rindler]] (Rindler chart for Minkowski vacuum),
* [[:sv:Hans Ringström|Hans Ringström]] (strong cosmic censorship holds for T3-Gowdy vacuums),
* [[Howard Percy Robertson]] (role of curvature, parametrized post-Newtonian formalism, [[Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric|Robertson–Walker metric]]),
* [[Ivor Robinson (physicist)|Ivor Robinson]] (Bel–Robinson tensor, Bertotti–Robinson electrovacuum),
* [[Alfonso Romero (mathematician)|Alfonso Romero]] (research on Lorentzian and semi-Riemannian geometry)
* [[Nathan Rosen]] (Erez–Rosen solution, [[Einstein–Rosen bridge]], Einstein–Rosen gravitational waves),
* [[Remo Ruffini]] (particle motion in black holes, textbook)

==S==
[[File:Karl schwarzschild.portrait.jpg|thumb|250x250px|Karl Schwarzschild]]
* [[Rainer K. Sachs]] ([[peeling theorem]], [[optical scalars]], Kantowski–Sachs fluid solutions, Sachs–Wolfe effect, Bondi–Metzner–Sachs group),
* [[Andrei Sakharov|Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov]] (vacuum fluctuations),
* [[Alfred Schild]] ([[Kerr–Schild perturbations|Kerr–Schild metrics]], [[Schild's ladder]]),
* [[Leonard Isaac Schiff]] (PPN formalism, textbook),
* [[Richard Schoen]] (positive energy theorem, gravitational shielding),
* [[Engelbert Schücking]] (Ozsváth–Schücking plane wave),
* [[Bernard F. Schutz]] (gravitational-wave detectors, textbook),
* [[Karl Schwarzschild]] ([[Schwarzschild Solution|Schwarzschild solution]], [[Schwarzschild radius]], Event horizon, Schwarzschild vacuum, Schwarzschild fluid),
* [[Dennis William Sciama]] (Einstein–Cartan theory, role in legitimizing black hole concept),
* [[Roman Ulrich Sexl]] (Aichelburg–Sexl ultraboost),
* [[Irwin Shapiro|Irwin I. Shapiro]] ([[Shapiro time delay|Shapiro effect]], observational tests),
* [[Harlow Shapley]] (rotating cosmologies),
* [[Willem de Sitter]] ([[de Sitter space]], [[Geodetic effect|de Sitter precession]]),
* [[Hartland Snyder]] ([[Oppenheimer–Snyder model]]),
* [[Hans Stephani]] (Stephani dust solution, monograph, textbook),
* [[Willem Jacob van Stockum]] ([[van Stockum dust|Lanczos–van Stockum dust]]),
* [[John Lighton Synge]] (global structure of Schwarzschild vacuum, world function, O'Brien–Synge matching conditions),
* [[George Szekeres]] ([[Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates]] for [[Schwarzschild vacuum]])

==T==
[[File:SaulTeukolsky1975.jpg|thumb|234x234px|Saul Teukolsky]]
* [[Abraham Haskel Taub]] (Taub plane symmetric vacuum, [[Taub–NUT space|Taub–NUT vacuum]], vacuum solutions foliated by Bianchi manifolds, relativistic hydrodynamics),
* [[Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr.|Joseph Taylor]] ([[Hulse–Taylor binary|Hulse–Taylor pulsar]]),
* [[Saul Teukolsky]] (Teukolsky's equations, numerical relativity, problem book),
* [[Hans Thirring]] (Lense–Thirring precession effect),
* [[Kip S. Thorne]] (relativistic multipoles, relativistic stars, [[hoop conjecture]], [[membrane paradigm]], gravitational-wave detectors, [[Gravitation (book)|textbook]], [[Wormhole|wormholes]]),
* [[Frank J. Tipler]] (classification of curvature singularities, [[Tipler cylinder]]),
* [[Richard Tolman|Richard Chase Tolman]] ([[Tolman surface brightness test]], [[Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equation|Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) equation]], Tolman dust solutions, LTB dust),
* [[Andrzej Trautman]] (RT spacetimes)

<br />
==U==
* [[William G. Unruh]] ([[Unruh radiation]])

==V==
* [[P. C. Vaidya]] ([[Vaidya metric]], Vaidya–Patel metric),
* [[K. S. Virbhadra]] (Virbhadra–Ellis lens equation [[Virbhadra–Ellis lens equation]], [[relativistic images]] [https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.62.084003], photon surfaces [http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JMAPAQ000042000002000818000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes],  observational test for the weak cosmic censorship hypothesis [https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.65.103004][http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=PRVDAQ000077000012124014000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes]),
* [[George Volkoff]] (Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equation)

==W==
[[File:Wheeler,John-Archibald 1963 Kopenhagen.jpg|thumb|John Archibald Wheeler|alt=|225x225px]]
* [[Robert M. Wald]] ([[General Relativity (book)|textbook]], black-hole perturbations, black-hole thermodynamics, electric fields outside a black hole, [[Quantum field theory in curved spacetime|quantum field theory in curved spacetimes]]),
* [[Arthur Geoffrey Walker]] (Fermi–Walker derivatives, Robertson–Walker metric),
* [[Mu-Tao Wang]] (quasilocal mass-energy),
* [[Joseph Weber]] (gravitational-wave detectors),
* [[Rainer Weiss]] ([[LIGO]], gravitational-waves observation),
* [[Peter Westervelt]] (indirect evidence for gravitational waves),
* [[Hermann Weyl]] (Weyl vacuums; see also related list below),
* [[John Archibald Wheeler]] (coined the terms "black holes" and "wormholes," [[geometrodynamics]], relativistic stars, Zerilli–Wheeler equation, [[Wheeler–DeWitt equation]], [[Gravitation (book)|textbook]]),
* [[Paul S. Wesson]] (relativistic cosmology, [[Kaluza–Klein theory]])
* [[Clifford Martin Will]] (parametrized post-Newtonian formalism, relativistic astrophysics, textbook<ref group="note">''Gravity: Newtonian, Post-Newtonian, Relativistic'' (with Eric Poisson).</ref>),
* [[Edward Witten]] ([[positive energy theorem]]),
* [[Louis Witten]] (Witten electrovacuum solutions)

==X==
* [[Basilis C. Xanthopoulos]] (Chandrasekhar–Xanthopoulos colliding plane wave)

==Y==
* [[Shing-Tung Yau]] (positive energy theorem),
* [[James W. York]] (initial value formulation, [[Gibbons–Hawking–York boundary term]])

==Z==
* [[Vladimir E. Zakharov]] (inverse scattering transform solution generating method),
* [[Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich]] (early evidence for [[no-hair theorem]], early evidence of black-hole radiation, relativistic astrophysics)

==Notes==
<references group="note"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|History of science|Physics}}
* [[Contributors to the mathematical background for general relativity]]
* [[List of cosmologists]]
* [[List of loop quantum gravity researchers]]
* [[List of quantum gravity researchers]]
* [[Introduction to general relativity]]
* [[Timeline of gravitational physics and relativity]]

{{Relativity}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contributors To General Relativity}}
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