Are two gravitational constants better than one?

[mamakosj]

I read an articly in the 28 April edition of New Scientist which sparked my interest. A particle physicist called Philip Mannheim put forward an interesting theory concerning the cosmological and gravitational constants. In essence, he seems to be suggesting that insted of trying to find an ever smaller cosmological constant (CC), it might be a better idea idea to use two different gravitational constants called Gnewton and Gcosmo. The former is used on small scales whilst the latter is derived from particle physics and is used on large, cosmological scales.

 

Click here for the link: Particle physicist takes on Newton and Einstein

 

A better and more detailed description of the theory is in the article above (click the link above). Please post your ideas about his theory for I would like to know other peoples views. This will hopefully provide different perspectives on this topic and make it easier for me and whoever else reads this thread to understand.

 

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE BEFORE BEING TOO CYNICAL ABOUT THIS. (my description is only very brief)

[Dak]

please don't post up username/passwords to subscription-only online places, as its probably illegal.

 

also, they'd probably have noticed the massive amounts of different IPs accessing the site at once, and cancelled your subscription.

 

If i'm mistaken and you're allowed to share your logon details, just tell me and i'll undelete the post.

[mamakosj]

sorry... you're probably right. do you think that i could post the whole article?

[Phi for All]

sorry... you're probably right. do you think that i could post the whole article?

Probably not. Is there a disclaimer requesting something like, "you may not reproduce or store in or transmit to any other web site, newsgroup, mailing list, etc.?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Feel free to post properly cited excerpts.

[ajb]

I think it was Dirac who first worked on the idea of a varying gravitational constant. I am not familiar with this work, but I think it would have been in the context of general relativity and cosmology as opposed to modified Newtonian gravity. All I can find is Consequences Of Varying G. (Talk) and The Variation Of G And The Quantum Theory. (Talk) on SPIRES.

[mamakosj]

Thanks for that... It seems that I cannot get to the qhole articel any more for some random reason... sorry.

 

Aside from that, is there anyone out there who has a good background knowledge of these developments and can shed some more light on the details and main concepts?

[alan2here]

Why not make it "Constant \ Size" or Simmerlar?

[mamakosj]

??? explain...

[alan2here]

Well if the strength of graverty changes with size then surly there should be a simple equation to decide the gravertational constant at a given scale. As opposed to one for "big" things and one for "small" things.

[mamakosj]

correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think there is a continous connection between the two constants. (for instant, i think that slightly different laws govern electrons that planets)