Classical unified field theories a survey of classical relativistic field theories of gravitation that have been motivated by theoretical concerns other than unification, see Classical theories of gravitation. For a survey of current work toward creating a quantum theory of gravitation, see quantum gravity. The early attempts at creating a unified field theory began with the Riemannian geometry of general relativity, and attempted to incorporate electromagnetic fields into a more general geometry, since ordinary Riemannian geometry seemed incapable of expressing the properties of the electromagnetic field. Einstein was not alone in his attempts to unify electromagnetism and gravity; a large number of mathematicians and
Classical unified field theories other hand, eventually abandoned classical unified theories. Current mainstream research on unified field theories focuses on the problem of creating a quantum theory of gravity and unifying with the other fundamental theories in physics, all of which are quantum field theories. (Some programs, such as string theory, attempt to solve both of these problems at once.) Of the four known fundamental forces, gravity remains the one force for which unification with the others proves problematic. Although new "classical" unified field theories continue to be proposed from time to time, often involving non-traditional elements such as spinors, none has been generally