2018/07/17 by Shuxun Tian, Tian, Shuxun
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1807.06432
openalex publication_date 2018/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Einstein field equations are second-order differential equations. In this paper, we propose a new gravity theory with pure fourth-order field equations, which we call 4G for brevity. We discuss the applications of 4G in cosmology, gravitational waves, and local gravitational systems. 4G predicts the scale factor a∝ t4/3 for the matter-dominated universe, and a∝ t for the radiation-dominated universe. The former can explain the late-time acceleration without suffering from the coincidence and fine-tuning problems, while the latter can solve the horizon problem. 4G is a massless gravity, which means the speed of gravitational waves equals to the speed of light. Based on the discussions about exact vacuum solution and weak field approximation, we argue that Schwarzschild metric should be the real physical metric to describe solar system in 4G.