Inertial and gravitational mass in the brans-dicke theory

✍ Scribed by Hans C Ohanian

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 690 KB
• Volume: 67
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-4916
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-4916(71)90155-2

✦ Synopsis

We investigate the equality of inertial and gravitational mass in the Brans-Dicke theory of gravitation in both the classical and quantum case. We derive a general expression for the ratio of inertial to gravitational mass for any classical static or quasistatic system. Although the ratio differs from one, in violation of the principle of equivalence, the difference is small (of the order of magnitude of (gravitational potential energy)/ (rest mass)). In the quantum case, we find that the gravitational self-energy of a particle contributes to the gravitational mass in such a way that the principle of equivalence is not necessarily satisfied. Thus, in contrast to Einstein's theory, the Brans-Dicke theory does not contain the principle of equivalence for quantum particles.