Question

Does gravitational radiation have a formalism similar to Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics?

Answer 1

Binary systems radiate energy away in gravitational waves as the orbits of the two masses spiral in towards each other. My understanding of gravity is that we think of it as a mediator of particle-particle interactions. If we expect there to be a massless force carrying boson for gravity, then we expect gravity mediates interactions between masses. However, if one considers a binary system assuming no other masses in the system, general relativity still predicts gravitational waves.

In comparison electrodynamics has a similar case when modeling a particle in the presence of the purely retarded field of another particle. One must include the radiation reaction self-force in order to get the correct equations of motion as we observe. However Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics allow us to think of this model not as a general model for two interacting particles but a model in which two particles interact in the presence of fixed charges (absorbers) stationed an infinite distance away in all directions. In this way the field only mediates interactions between charges, the "field" itself cannot carry energy off to infinity if there are no charges at infinity.

I realize Wheeler-Feynman still has some issues when quantization as there is no mass normalization which is required for the lamb shift.

Answer 2

Explanation:

Wheeler-Feynman theory that abandons fields in favor of ... quantum mechanics has shown how problematic it can be to ... Electromagnetic radiation, propagating at the.