Vectorgravity

Vector Gravity
Kirk T. McDonald
Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
(Dec. 4, 1996)
As early as 1832, Faraday considered a possible relation between electromagnetism and

gravity,1 and noted a key difference is that gravity is always attractive while electricity can
be both attractive and repulsive. In 1849 and again in 1859 he made experimental searches
for electromotive forces induced in massive circuits that fell through the slightly nonuniform
gravitational field at the Earth’s surface (with negative results).
In sec. 82 of his great 1864 paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field 2
J.C. Maxwell considered whether Newtonian gravity could be described by a vector field the-
ory. He was dissatisfied with his results because the potential energy of a static gravitational
configuration is always negative but he felt this should be re-expressible as an integral over
field-energy density which, being the square of the gravitational field, is positive. Another
way of stating the issue is that in a consistent Lagrangian theory of vector fields the force
between like charges is repulsive.3 In this note, we neglect this fundamental issue, and con-
sider other aspects of a possible vector theory of gravity that is attractive for like charges
(masses).
It has often been noted that magnetism can largely be understood as the consequence of
electrostatics plus special relativity.4 Similarly, static gravity plus special relativity implies
phenomena often called “magnetic gravity”.5 These simple arguments advise us that some
manifestation of “magnetic gravity” must be contained in any valid theory of gravity. The
first recorded discussion of “magnetic gravity” appears to be by Oliver Heaviside in his
Maxwellian vector theory of gravity,6 which we review here.
The static gravitational force on a mass m due to a mass density ρ can be written in
close analogy to electrostatics as
F = mg,
1
G. Cantor, Faraday’s search for the gravelectric effect, Phys. Ed. 26, 289 (1991),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/cantor_pe_26_289_91.pdf
2
J.C Maxwell, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London 155, 459 (1865),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/EM/maxwell_ptrsl_155_459_65.pdf
O.D. Jefimenko in his books Causality, Electromagnetic Induction and Gravitation and Gravitation and
Cogravitation (Electret Scientific Company, Star City, 1991, 2006) ignores the issue of negative gravitational
field energy, and gives extensive discussion of analogies between electromagnetism and gravitation.
3
See, for example, chaps. 7 and 8 of F.E. Low, Classical Field Theory (Wiley, New York, 1997).
4
See, for example, chap. 3 of M. Schwartz, Principles of Electrodynamics (McGraw-Hill, New York,
1972).
5
See, for example, D. Bedford and P. Krumm, On relativistic gravitation, Am. J. Phys. 53, 889, (1985),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/bedford_ajp_53_889_85.pdf
The gravitational Poynting vector and energy transfer, Am. J. Phys. 55, 362 (1987),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/krumm_ajp_55_352_87.pdf
H. Kolbenstvedt, Gravomagnetism in special relativity, Am. J. Phys. 56, 523 (1988),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/kolbenstvedt_56_523_88.pdf
6
O. Heaviside, Electromagnetic Theory, Vol. 1 (“The Electrician” Printing and Publishing Co., London,
1894), pp. 455-465.
1
where the static gravitational field g obeys
∇ · g = −4πGρ, ∇ × g = 0,
where G is Newton’s gravitational constant.

Heaviside argued that in analogy to the remaining Maxwell equations we should expect
a gravitomagnetic field h that obeys
∇ · h = 0, ∇ × h = −4πHρv,
where v is the velocity of the mass that causes field h and H is a constant (that should be
called Heaviside’s constant) which characterizes the strength of the gravitomagnetic interac-
tion. The force on mass m is now
F = mg + mv × h,
where v is the velocity of mass m in this expression, in analogy to the Lorentz force law
(actually first written down by Heaviside in 1889).
If the constant H (and also G) were larger there might have been an experimental mea-
surement of its value. Then it would have been noted that

G
= c,
H
the speed of light!
In the preceding I have chosen different units for the field h than those recommended by
Heaviside to emphasize how, if observed, the field h might have been interpreted initially as
quite distinct from the field g and having nothing to do with the speed of light.
Lacking evidence of gravitomagnetostatic effects, Heaviside proceed by analogy to the
full Maxwell equations and inferred the time-dependent equations of the gravitational field
would be
∂h
∇ · g = −4πGρ, ∇×g=− ,
∂t
and
H ∂g
∇ · h = 0, ∇ × h = −4πHρv + .
G ∂t
Heaviside then noted that there should be gravitational waves which propagate with
velocity
G
v= ,
H
As an example Heaviside considered that the propagation velocity might well be the
speed of light. From this assumption the constant H has the value 7.3 × 10−28 m/kg.
Heaviside then noted that the gravitational field of the Sun, taken as moving relative
to the ‘ether’ defined by the fixed stars, would be modified by terms in (vSun/c)2 exactly
as is the case for the field of a rapidly moving electric charge (which result he had been
the first to derive correctly to all orders in v/c in 1888). He then calculated the resulting
precession of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun and concluded this effect was small enough to
2
have gone unnoticed thus far, and therefore offered no contradiction to the hypothesis that
gravitational effects propagate at the speed of light.
Heaviside also considered the effect of the dipole gravitomagnetic field of the rotating
Sun, finding the dipole moment to be −HL/2 where L is the angular momentum of the Sun.
However, the effect of this moment on the precession of a planet’s orbit has the opposite
sign to the observed effect, and is too small in magnitude by a factor LSun/Lorbital, planet.
(Surprisingly, Heaviside seemed to be unaware of the long history of measurements of the
precession of Mercury’s orbit.)
It appears that the first confrontation between experiment and new predictions of grav-
itational field theory occurred some 20 years before Einstein’s celebrated work.
From Heaviside’s habit of recording the date on which sections of his book first appeared
as short articles in The Electrician magazine I infer that gravitation occupied his attention
for only three weeks in 1893 and that he never returned to the subject.
Heaviside’s work could be called a low-velocity, weak-field approximation to general rel-
ativity. This topic was revived in an interesting paper by R.L. Forward, General Relativity
for the Experimentalist, that is perhaps insufficiently well-known due in part to its place of
publication.7
The precession of planetary orbits is not a good test of gravitomagnetism; that precession
is due to corrections of order v 2 /c2 to the field g that are ‘post-Maxwellian’. (The term ‘post-
Newtonian’ typically used in the literature is perhaps not sufficiently precise in this regard.).
However, gravitomagnetism is a useful insight for understanding the precession of orbiting
gyroscopes that will hopefully be observed in experiments now under construction.
7
Proceedings of the Institute for Radio Engineers 49, 892 (1961),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/forward_pire_49_892_61.pdf
Additional discussions can be found in sec. III of Laboratory Experiments to Test Relativistic Gravity by
V.B. Braginsky, C.M. Caves and K.S. Thorne, Phys. Rev. D 15, 2047 (1977),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/braginsky_prd_15_2047_77.pdf
in Gravitomagnetism, Jets in Quasars and the Stanford Gyroscope Experiment by K.S. Thorne in Near Zero:
New Frontiers of Physics, ed. by J.D. Fairbank et al. (W.H. Freeman, New York, 1988),
an in E. G. Harris, Analogy between general relativity and electromagnetism for slowly moving particles in
weak gravitational fields, Am. J. Phys. 59, 421 (1991),
http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/GR/harris_ajp_59_421_91.pdf

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Vector Gravity

As early as 1832, Faraday considered a possible relation between electromagnetism and

where G is Newton’s gravitational constant.

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