Gravitational Energy Loss and Binary Pulsars in the Scalar Ether-Theory of Gravitation

TL;DR

This paper explores a scalar bimetric gravity theory with a preferred reference frame, deriving energy loss predictions for binary pulsars that align with observations, using an extended post-Minkowskian approximation.

Contribution

It introduces a scalar ether-theory of gravity with a post-Minkowskian scheme, providing a new framework to analyze gravitational energy loss in binary pulsars.

Findings

Energy loss via quadrupole radiation matches observations.

The theory recovers Newtonian gravity and Schwarzschild metric in static cases.

The approximation justifies equating energy rates to Newtonian energy loss.

Abstract

Motivation is given for trying a theory of gravity with a preferred reference frame (``ether'' for short). One such theory is summarized, that is a scalar bimetric theory. Dynamics is governed by an extension of Newton's second law. In the static case, geodesic motion is recovered together with Newton's attraction field. In the static spherical case, Schwarzschild's metric is got. An asymptotic scheme of post-Minkowskian (PM) approximation is built by associating a conceptual family of systems with the given weakly-gravitating system. It is more general than the post-Newtonian scheme in that the velocity may be comparable with $c$. This allows to justify why the 0PM approximation of the energy rate may be equated to the rate of the Newtonian energy, as is usually done. At the 0PM approximation of this theory, an isolated system loses energy by quadrupole radiation, without any monopole or dipole term. It seems plausible that the observations on binary pulsars (the pulse data) could be nicely fitted with a timing model based on this theory.