Paper detail

Gravitational Waves in G4v

Gravitational coupling of the propagation four-vectors of matter wave functions is formulated in flat space-time. Coupling at the momentum level rather than at the "force-law" level greatly simplifies many calculations. This locally Lorentz-invariant approach (G4v) treats electromagnetic and gravitational coupling on an equal footing. Classical mechanics emerges from the incoherent aggregation of matter wave functions. The theory reproduces, to first order beyond Newton, the standard GR results for Gravity-Probe B, deflection of light by massive bodies, precession of orbits, gravitational red shift, and total gravitational-wave energy radiated by a circular binary system. Its predictions of total radiated energy from highly eccentric Kepler systems are slightly larger than those of similar GR treatments. G4v predictions differ markedly from those of GR for the gravitational-wave radiation patterns from rotating massive systems, and for the LIGO antenna pattern. The predicted antenna patterns have been shown to be highly distinguishable in the case of continuous gravitational-wave sources, and should therefore be testable as data from Advanced LIGO becomes available over the next few years.