Gravitation and Cogravitation: Developing Newton's Theory of Gravitation to its Physical and Mathematical Conclusion

Newton's theory of gravitation is the grandest and the most enduring physical theory ever created. Today, more than 300 years after it was first conceived, Newton's theory of gravitation is still the basic working theory of astronomers and of all the scientists dealing with space exploration and celestial mechanics. However, Newton's theory of gravitation has serious defects: it is incapable of accounting for certain fine details of planetary motion; it does not provide any information on the temporal aspect of gravitational interactions; it cannot be reconciled with the principle of causality and with the law of conservation of momentum. This book extends and generalizes Newton's theory of gravitation, makes it free from the above defects, and provides a large variety of methods for calculating gravitational interactions between moving or stationary bodies of all shapes, sizes and configurations. The starting point of the generalization of Newton's theory of gravitation developed in this book is the idea that gravitational interactions are mediated by two force fields: the gravitational field proper created by all masses and acting upon all masses, and the "cogravitational" field created by moving masses only and acting upon moving masses only. In accordance with the principle of causality, the two fields are represented by retarded field integrals, which, for static or slowly-varying gravitational systems, yield the ordinary Newtonian gravitational field. An immediate consequence of the generalized Newtonian theory of gravitation developed on this basis is that gravitational interactions normally involve at least five different forces associated with velocities, accelerations and rotations of interacting bodies. The effects of these forces are quite remarkable. Some examples: a fast-moving mass passing a spherically-symmetric body causes the latter to rotate; a mass moving with rapidly-decreasing velocity exerts both an attractive and a repulsive f