General relativity can be completely described as a field in a flat space
the verdict
REFUTED
the evidence says no
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
4 sources for · 2 against
Standard reference sources and experimental reviews establish that general relativity is a geometric theory of gravitation describing spacetime curvature rather than a field in a flat space.
Evidence for · 4
The Field-Theoretic Approach in General Relativity and Other Metric Theories. A Review
2020 · cited by 11
GR and other metric theories of gravity are formulated with an arbitrary auxiliary curved background in a Lagrangian formalism. A new sketch of how to include spinor fields is included. Conserved quantities are obtained using Noether's theorem and expressed as divergences of antisymmetric densities, connecting local perturbations with quasi-local conserved quantities. The background's arbitrariness matches the so-called non-localizability of gravitational energy (infinity of localizations). The formalism has two partly overlapping uses: practical applications of pure GR (with fictitious background) and foundational considerations in which background causality facilitates quantization. The Schwarzschild solution is a primary application. Various possibilities for calculating the mass using surface integration are given. A field-theoretic curved spacetime is given from spatial infinity to the horizon and even to the true singularity. Trajectories of test particles in the Schwarzschild geometry are gauge-dependent in that even breakdowns at the horizon can be suppressed (or generated) by naive gauge transformations. This fact illustrates the auxiliary nature of the background metric and the need for some notion of maximal extension---much as with coordinate transformations in geometric GR. A continuous collapse to a point mass in the field-theoretic framework is given. The field-theoretic method is generalized to arbitrary metric theories in $D$ dimensions. The results are developed in the framework of Lovelock gravity and applied to calculate masses of Schwarzschild-like black holes. The bimetric formalism makes it natural to consider a graviton mass. Babak and Grishchuk's numerical and hence nonperturbative work sheds light on questions of a (dis)continuous massless limit for massive pure spin-2 and the classical (in)stability of spin-2/spin-0 theory.
We review the experimental evidence for Einstein’s special and general relativity. A variety of high precision null experiments verify the weak equivalence principle and local Lorentz invariance, while gravitational redshift and other clock experiments support local position invariance. Together these results confirm the Einstein Equivalence Principle which underlies the concept that gravitation is synonymous with spacetime geometry, and must be described by a metric theory. Solar system experiments that test the weak-field, post-Newtonian limit of metric theories strongly favor general relativity. The Binary Pulsar provides tests of gravitational-wave damping and of strong-field general relativity. Recently discovered binary pulsar systems may provide additional tests. Future and ongoing experiments, such as the Gravity Probe B Gyroscope Experiment, satellite tests of the Equivalence principle, and tests of gravity at short distance to look for extra spatial dimensions could constrain extensions of general relativity. Laser interferometric gravitational-wave observatories on Earth and in space may provide new tests of gravitational theory via detailed measurements of the properties of gravitational waves. During the late 1960s, it was frequently said that “the field of general relativity is a theorist’s paradise and an experimentalist’s purgatory”. To be sure, there were some experiments: Irwin Shapiro, then at MIT, had just measured the relativistic retardation of radar wav
General Covariance and its Implications for Einstein's Space-Times
This is a review of the chrono-geometrical structure of special and general relativity with a special emphasis on the role of non-inertial frames and of the conventions for the synchronization of distant clocks. ADM canonical metric and tetrad gravity are analyzed in a class of space-times suitable to incorporate particle physics by using Dirac theory of constraints, which allows to arrive at a separation of the genuine degrees of freedom of the gravitational field, the Dirac observables describing generalized tidal effects, from its gauge variables, describing generalized inertial effects. A background-independent formulation (the rest-frame instant form of tetrad gravity) emerges, since the chosen boundary conditions at spatial infinity imply the existence of an asymptotic flat metric. By switching off the Newton constant in presence of matter this description deparametrizes to the rest-frame instant form for such matter in the framework of parametrized Minkowski theories. The problem of the objectivity of the space-time point-events, implied by Einstein's Hole Argument, is analyzed.
Field Theory of Gravitation: Desire and Reality
A retrospective analysis of the field theory of gravitation, describing gravitational field in the same way as other fields of matter in the flat space-time, is done. The field approach could be called "quantum gravidynamics" to distinguish it from the "geometrodynamics" or general relativity. The basic propositions and main conclusions of the field approach are discussed with reference to classical works of Birkhoff, Moshinsky, Thirring, Kalman, Feynman, Weinberg, Deser. In the case of weak fields both "gravidynamics" and "geometrodynamics" give the same predictions for classical relativistic effects. However, in the case of strong field, and taking into account quantum nature of the gravitational interaction, they are profoundly different. Contents of the paper: 1) Introduction; 2) Two ways in gravity theory: 2.1.Hypotheses of Poincar\'e and Einstein, 2.2. Gravity as a geometry of space, 2.3.
New Possibilities for Observational Distinction Between Geometrical and Field Gravity Theories
Crucial observational tests of gravity physics are reviewed. Such tests are able to clarify the key question on the nature of gravitational interaction: is gravity the curvature of space? or is gravity a matter field in Minkowski flat space as other physical forces? Up to now all actually performed experiments do not allow to distinguish between these two alternatives in gravity physics. The existence of well-defined positive energy-momentum of the gravity field in Poincare-Feynman approach leads to radical changes in gravity physics and cosmology which may be tested by laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations. New possibilities for observational distinction between geometrical general relativity and field gravity theories are discussed.
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in May 1916 and is the accepted description of the gravitation of macroscopic objects in modern physics. General relativity generalizes special relativity and refines Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a uni
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in May 1916 and is the accepted description of the gravitation of macroscopic objects in modern physics. General relativity generalizes special relativity and refines Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or four-dimensional spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy, momentum, and stress of whatever is present, including matter and radiation. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of second-order partial differential equations. John Archibald Wheeler summarized it: "Space-time tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to curve."
Newton's law of universal gravitation, which describes gravity in classical mechanics, can be seen as a prediction of general relativity for the almost flat spacetime geometry around stationary mass distributions. Some predictions of general relativity, however, are beyond Newton's law of universal gravitation in classical physics. These predictions concern the passage of time, the geometry of space, the motion of bodies in free fall, and the propagation of light, and include gravitational time dilation, gravitational lensing, the gravitational redshift of light, the Shapiro time delay, singularities and black holes. So far, all tests of general relativity have been in agreement with the theory. The time-dependent solutions of general relativity enable us to extrapolate the history of the universe into the past and future, and have provided the modern framework for cosmology, thus leading to the discovery of the Big Bang and cosmic microwave background radiation. Despite the introduction of a number of alternative theories, general relativity continues to be the simplest theory consistent with experimental data.
Reconciliation of general relativity with the laws of quantum physics remains a problem, however, as no self-consistent theory of quantum gravity has been found. It is not yet known…
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