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The gravitational constant existed before GR. GR deals with ‘space curvature’ and makes tiny tweaks or corrections that I say are not necessary with a ‘flat space concept’. Einstein himself admitted that he made a mistake with his introduction of ‘Lambda’ to counter the effects of a gravitational collapse. He was wrong here also because gravity is neutralized by ‘linear momentum’ which prevents gravitational collapse.
Hi,
But I would like to remind you that theories about the cosmological constant have indeed be revived. Reason?
Well first why did he tell that he had made an error when he had introduced the cosmological constant? That was because he believed in the steady state therory, even though there was nothing like that at that time and strongly opposed the Big Bang theory and the statement that the Universe is expanding. But his field equations somehow could only hold good IF the universe was in motion, or in other words expansion or contraction(it was expansion and proved by Hubble which is not related to this post). So, for that, he introduced the cosmological constant which gave the constancy for the universe and matter. But later took it back, because it too supported the theory.
Now it has been revived by scientists because, it is indeed a true statement and presents the approximate shape of the Universe, i.e. whether it is closed or open. A value above the constant gives that it is open, below, closed.
gagsrcool