Cosmological constant (Lambda): The constant mentioned to the Einstein field equation, proposed to admit the static cosmological solutions. At the time the present philosophical view was steady-state model of the space, where the Universe has been around for unlimited time. Prior analysis of the field equation pointed that the general relativity permitted dynamic cosmological models only (ones which are either contracting or expanding), however no static models. Einstein mentioned the most natural aberration to the field equation which he could think of: the addition of a term proportional to the space time metric tensor, g, with constant of proportionality being the cosmological constant as:
G + Lambda g = 8 pi T.
Hubble's afterward discovery of the expansion of the Universe pointed that the introduction of the cosmological constant was needless; had Einstein believed what his field equation was stating him, he could have declared the expansion of the Universe as perhaps the supreme and most convincing prediction of general relativity; he termed this the "greatest blunder of my life."