Mach's Principle and Spatial Scale-Invariance of Gravity
Abstract
Gravity does not provide any scale for matter properties. We argue that this is also the implication of Mach's hypothesis of the relativity of inertia. The most general spacetime compatible with this property of gravity is that admitting three, independent spatial homothetic Killing vectors generating an arbitrary function of each one of the three spatial coordinates. The matter properties for such a spacetime are (spatially) arbitrary and the matter generating the spacetime admits any equation of state. This is also the most general spacetime containing the weak gravity physics in its entirety. This spacetime is machian in that it is globally degenerate for anti-machian situations such as vacuum, a single matter particle etc. and, hence, has no meaning in the absence of matter.
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