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arXiv · 1007.4572

General Relativity As an Aether Theory

Maurice J. Dupre·Frank J. Tipler
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Abstract

Most early twentieth century relativists --- Lorentz, Einstein, Eddington, for examples --- claimed that general relativity was merely a theory of the aether. We shall confirm this claim by deriving the Einstein equations using aether theory. We shall use a combination of Lorentz's and Kelvin's conception of the aether. Our derivation of the Einstein equations will not use the vanishing of the covariant divergence of the stress-energy tensor, but instead equate the Ricci tensor to the sum of the usual stress-energy tensor and a stress-energy tensor for the aether, a tensor based on Kelvin's aether theory. A crucial first step is generalizing the Cartan formalism of Newtonian gravity to allow spatial curvature, as conjectured by Gauss and Riemann.

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Maurice J. Dupre, Frank J. Tipler. 2010-07-26. General Relativity As an Aether Theory. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218271812500113

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