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From: tjr@ihnet.UUCP (Tom Roberts)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Is Gravity Instantaneous - NO and YES
Message-ID: <126@ihnet.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Apr-84 11:05:51 EST
Article-I.D.: ihnet.126
Posted: Mon Apr 23 11:05:51 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Apr-84 01:01:04 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 22

I am entering this discussion late, but could not resist.

Gravity (as I understand it from Einstein's General Theory) IS NOT
instantaneous (NOTHING is). Note however, that it is NOT a quantum
field theory, SO MATTER CANNOT BE CREATED (e.g. virtual e+e- pairs)
without energy having been present (locally) before the creation of the matter.
In this theory, matter is NOT created, but merely transformed from
some other form of energy; as the presence of that energy would imply
a gravitational interaction, "creating" matter would not cause major
changes in the gravitational fields (only minor ones due to the new
distribution of matter/energy in the immediate vicinity of the
newly "created" matter).

In fact, I know of NOTHING you could do at one point in space that can
cause MAJOR fluctuations in the gravitational fields at a distant
point in space (either "instantaneously" or delayed by L/c). Because of the
conservation theorems, the (local) configuration before an interaction
must have been "close" the the configuration afterwards; the fields
at a distance would thus be similar, before and after.

	Tom Roberts
	ihnp4!ihnet!tjr