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count_of_monte_carlo Mod , (edited )

Alternative theories of gravity are like alternative theories of medicine, they tend to be thoroughly invalidated and none are anywhere near as effective as the mainstream theory. As the wiki article you linked notes:

However, such models are no longer regarded as viable theories within the mainstream scientific community and general relativity is now the standard model to describe gravitation without the use of actions at a distance.

General relativitiy is one of the most tested, validated theories in physics. It is incredibly successful, not just describing the attraction of massive bodies but also describing frame dragging (solving a longstanding mystery on the retrograde motion of Mercury that Newtonian gravitation couldn’t explain), and predicting gravitational lensing and gravitational waves, both of which have been observed since and are perfectly described by GR.

An alternate model should attempt to solve a problem in the current leading one, for example giving a more fundamental explanation, or working at different scales where the current model fails (quantum gravity theories, for example). A good alternative model will also give results that are consistent with all existing observations, which is one area that every alternative theory of gravity I’m aware of fails. What problems in GR are you looking to resolve with an alternate gravitational model?

Jeredin OP ,
@Jeredin@lemm.ee avatar

I’m not interested in questioning Einstein’s gravity - it’s super successful. I was interested in the history and alternative ideas that beaches out and died and the Wiki did have some decent info and even papers on “ether.” Fascinating and maybe intuitive for its time. It’s very hard to find any writing on postulating the mechanics that cause gravity to warp space/time. I was mostly interested in finding if there was some kind of wave function (not a graviton) within to describe the, “why.” There’s so much energy within atoms that you’d think there was more than enough room for hypotheticals, but none that are famous enough to discover on the Internet.

Thanks though

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