Theories of Newtonian gravity and empirical indistinguishability |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan;2. Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan;1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China;2. State Key Laboratory for Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR China;3. School of Engineering and Material Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, UK;1. Structural Engineering Department, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil;2. Institute of Materials and Manufacturing, Brunel University London, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK;1. Research School of Engineering, Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia;2. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China |
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| Abstract: | In this essay, I examine the curved spacetime formulation of Newtonian gravity known as Newton–Cartan gravity and compare it with flat spacetime formulations. Two versions of Newton–Cartan gravity can be identified in the physics literature—a “weak” version and a “strong” version. The strong version has a constrained Hamiltonian formulation and consequently a well-defined gauge structure, whereas the weak version does not (with some qualifications). Moreover, the strong version is best compared with the structure of what Earman (World enough and spacetime. Cambridge: MIT Press) has dubbed Maxwellian spacetime. This suggests that there are also two versions of Newtonian gravity in flat spacetime—a “weak” version in Maxwellian spacetime, and a “strong” version in Neo-Newtonian spacetime. I conclude by indicating how these alternative formulations of Newtonian gravity impact the notion of empirical indistinguishability and the debate over scientific realism. |
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