Eur. Phys. J. H 40, 301–335 (2015)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2015-50061-y

Einstein’s cosmology review of 1933: a new perspective on the Einstein-de Sitter model of the cosmos

¹ School of Science, Waterford Institute of Technology, Cork Road, Waterford, Ireland
² School of Theoretical Physics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 10 Burlington Road, Dublin 2, Ireland
³ Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RH, UK

^a e-mail: coraifeartaigh@wit.ie

Received: 12 December 2014
Received in final form: 29 April 2015
Published online: 9 June 2015

Abstract

We present a first English translation and analysis of a little-known review of relativistic cosmology written by Albert Einstein in late 1932. The article, which was published in 1933 in a book of Einstein papers translated into French, contains a substantial review of static and dynamic relativistic models of the cosmos, culminating in a discussion of the Einstein-de Sitter model. The article offers a valuable contemporaneous insight into Einstein’s cosmology in the early 1930s and confirms that his interest lay in the development of the simplest model of the cosmos that could account for observation. The article also confirms that Einstein did not believe that simplified relativistic models could give an accurate description of the early universe.