Scale invariant gravity and the quasi-static universe

Abstract

We highlight the fact that the lack of scale invariance in the gravitational field equations of General Relativity results from the underlying assumption that the appropriate scale for the gravitational force should be linked to the atomic scale. We show that many of the problems associated with cosmology and quantum gravity follow directly from this assumption. An alternative scale invariant paradigm is proposed, in which the appropriate scale for General Relativity takes the Universe as its baseline, and the gravitational force does not have any fixed relationship to forces that apply on the atomic scale. It is shown that this gives rise to a quasi-static universe, and that the predicted behaviour of this model can resolve most of the problems associated with the standard Big Bang model. The replacement of Newton's gravitational constant in the quasi-static model by a scale-dependent re-normalisation factor is also able to account for a number of astronomical observations that would otherwise require ad-hoc explanations. Some of the implications of scale invariant gravity for Planck scale physics, quantum cosmology, and the nature of time are discussed.