Was Einstein REALLY right?

[Jet Foncannon]

Detecting gravitational waves is a magnificent accomplishment.
Science is more beautiful than any religious doctrine.
But was Einstein right? The American mathematician Garret
Birkhoff
had a theory of relativity, developed independently of Einstein. The
researchrs who developed the eponymous Bram-Dicke theory also posited
a competing theory. All these theories agree with Einstein's to the
order of 1/(c squared), a very small quantity. We now stand on the
threshold of possessing experimental protocols of sufficient accuracy
to find which of these theories, if any, is correct.
I recommend highly the book, "Was Einstein Right?", 2nd ed.,
by
Clifford M. Will, Professor of astrophysics, Washington University in
St. Louis.
Jet Foncannon

This Morning 11 Feb 2016 (I post at 7:45 am Pacific time)
LIGO project has announced the detection of gravitational waves!.
The live conference feed was difficult to access and their servers
seem to be overloaded. Below is an abstract I was able to access
for the paper they dropped. Access may improve during the day, be
patient. (Oh sure).
So Einstein was right (again). 100 years it took us to catch up,
but there it is. Inspiraling black holes, as expected. You do not
want to be standing too close to one of those celestial events, mates!
Awesome. Words just fail. Science Kossacks please keep updates
coming in the comments!
Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo
Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102
Published 11 February 2016
Abstract
On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously
observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps
upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave
strain of 1.0W10-21. It matches the waveform predicted by general
relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes
and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was
observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a
false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years,
equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1s. The source lies
at a luminosity distance of 410+160-180 Mpc corresponding to a
redshift z=0.09+0.03-0.04. In the source frame, the initial black
hole masses are 36+5-4M? and 29+4-4M?, and the final black hole
mass is 62+4-4M?, with 3.0+0.5-0.5M?c2 radiated in gravitational
waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These
observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass
black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of
gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black
hole merger.
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
PS all the good graphics seem to be copyrighted and require advance
permission. They are everywhere though, so I'm sure you will be
seeing these.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/11/1483452/-BREAKING-LIGO-
did-it-Gravitational-Waves-Detected
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[George Kambic]

Nice but of what interest other than historical.  The heck with the
book.  How about some experimental predictions and measurements.  Have
they been peer reviewed and published?  If not, why not?  Peer review
is not perfect, but it is a rather useful tool for taking a hard look
at new ideas.  If these two hypotheses are that close to general
relativty, they are probably alternative formulations of the same
concept.  
Einstein may not be right, but he is probably "righter" than a lot of
other hypotheses.  

From: jet foncannon <***@comcast.net>
To: Scientific discussion of extraordinary things
<***@lists.opn.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 8:37 PM
Subject: Was Einstein REALLY right?

Detecting gravitational waves is a magnificent accomplishment. 
Science is more beautiful than any religious doctrine.
    But was Einstein right?  The American mathematician Garret
Birkhoff 
had a theory of relativity, developed independently of Einstein.  The 
researchrs who developed the eponymous Bram-Dicke theory also posited 
a competing theory.  All these theories agree with Einstein's to the 
order of 1/(c squared), a very small quantity.  We now stand on the 
threshold of possessing experimental protocols of sufficient accuracy 
to find which of these theories, if any, is correct.
    I recommend highly the book, "Was Einstein Right?", 2nd ed., by 
Clifford M. Will, Professor of astrophysics, Washington University in 
St. Louis.
Jet Foncannon

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---

[J. Clarke]

Post by George Kambic
Nice but of what interest other than historical.  The heck with the
book.  How about some experimental predictions and measurements.  Have
they been peer reviewed and published?  If not, why not?  Peer review
is not perfect, but it is a rather useful tool for taking a hard look
at new ideas.  If these two hypotheses are that close to general
relativty, they are probably alternative formulations of the same
concept.  
Einstein may not be right, but he is probably "righter" than a lot of
other hypotheses.  

<snip>

Both were published. Both are discussed in Misner, Thorne, & Wheeler.
According to them Birkhoff's model is invalid as it requires that the
speed of sound be the same as the speed of light. Brans-Dicke (note--
Bra_ns_, not Bra_m_) was at the time that _Gravitation_ was written
considered to be a potentially viable alternative to Einstein--
discrepancies between them were too small to measure with the technology
of the time (and possibly still are).

Incidentally Garrett Birkhoff was not an "American mathematician", he
was a British mathematician who spend most of his life in the US.