Modified gravity and the origin of inertia

Abstract

Modified gravity theory is known to violate Birkhoff's theorem. We explore a key consequence of this violation, the effect of distant matter in the Universe on the motion of test particles. We find that when a particle is accelerated, a force is experienced that is proportional to the particle's mass and acceleration and acts in the direction opposite to that of the acceleration. We identify this force with inertia. At very low accelerations, our inertial law deviates slightly from that of Newton, yielding a testable prediction that may be verified with relatively simple experiments. Our conclusions apply to all gravity theories that reduce to a Yukawa-like force in the weak field approximation.

4 pages, 3 figures; published version with updated references

References in corpus (6)

• Scalar-Tensor-Vector Gravity Theory
• Galaxy Rotation Curves Without Non-Baryonic Dark Matter
• The Bullet Cluster 1E0657-558 evidence shows Modified Gravity in the absence of Dark Matter
• Galaxy Cluster Masses Without Non-Baryonic Dark Matter
• Testing modified gravity with globular cluster velocity dispersions
• Is violation of Newton's second law possible?

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• Modifying Gravity: You Can't Always Get What You Want
• Scalar radiation from Chameleon-shielded regions
• Gravitational synchrotron radiation and Penrose process in STVG theory
• Observational Constraints on the Modified Gravity Model (MOG) Proposed by Moffat: Using the Magellanic System
• Explaining JWST star formation history at $z\sim 17$ by modifying $\Lambda$CDM
• Galaxy rotation curves and preferred reference frame effects
• Void or Dark Energy?
• Dark Coincidences: Small-Scale Solutions with Refracted Gravity and MOND
• Black hole solutions in the warped DGP braneworld
• Machian gravity and a cosmology without dark matter and dark energy