Stability of 2-body orbits in retarded gravitation theory (RGT)

Abstract

The recently formulated retarded gravitation theory (RGT) explains the non-Newtonian velocities of stars in spiral galaxies, *without any new hypothesis*, and may hence be tested even in the laboratory. However, doubts have been expressed that those higher rotation velocities in RGT may be due to instabilities. We resolve these doubts by solving the full functional differential equations of RGT for a model 2-body planetary system. The solution is stable and closely agrees with the Newtonian solution for this planetary case. Thus, the big difference between RGT and Newtonian gravity for a spiral galaxy is not due to any instability in RGT.