BELATED DECISION IN THE HILBERT-EINSTEIN PRIORITY DISPUTE

According to the commonly accepted view, David Hilbert completed the g eneral theory of relativity at least 5 days before Albert Einstein sub mitted his conclusive paper an this theory on 25 November 1915. Hilber t's article, bearing the date of submission 20 November 1915 but publi shed only on 31 March 1916, presents a generally covariant theory of g ravitation, including field equations essentially equivalent to those in Einstein's paper. A close analysis of archival material reveals tha t Hilbert did not anticipate Einstein; The first set of proofs of Hilb ert's paper shows that the theory he originally submitted is not gener ally covariant and does not include the explicit form of the field equ ations of general relativity.