2010/04/16 by Niayesh Afshordi, Afshordi, Niayesh · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-th #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1004.2901
4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Physics in Canada
arxiv created 2010/04/16 · openalex publication_date 2010/04/16 · arxiv updated 2010/04/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Einstein's theory of general relativity describes gravity as the interaction of particles with space-time geometry, as opposed to interacting with a physical fluid, as in the old gravitational aether theories. Moreover, any theoretical physicist would tell you that, despite its counter-intuitive structure, general relativity is one of the simplest, most beautiful, and successful theories in physics, that has withstood a diverse battery of precision tests over the past century. So, is there any motivation to relax its fundamental principle, and re-introduce a gravitational aether? Here, I give a short and non-technical account of why quantum gravity and cosmological constant problems provide this motivation.