Luis Santaló and classical field theory

Abstract

Considered one of the founding fathers of integral geometry, Luis Santaló has contributed to various areas of mathematics. His work has applications in number theory, in the theory of differential equations, in stochastic geometry, in functional analysis, and also in theoretical physics. Between the 1950’s and the 1970’s, he wrote a series of papers on general relativity and on the attempts at generalizing Einstein’s theory to formulate a unified field theory. His main contribution in this subject was to provide a classification theorem for the plethora of tensors that were populating Einstein’s generalized theory. This paper revisits his work on theoretical physics.