Effective Theories and Modifications of Gravity
Abstract
We live at a time of contradictory messages about how successfully we understand gravity. General Relativity seems to work very well in the Earth's immediate neighborhood, but arguments abound that it needs modification at very small and/or very large distances. This essay tries to put this discussion into the broader context of similar situations in other areas of physics, and summarizes some of the lessons which our good understanding of gravity in the solar system has for proponents for its modification over very long and very short distances. The main message is that effective theories, in the technical sense of `effective', provide the natural language for testing proposals, and so are also effective in the colloquial sense.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0912.4295,
title = {Effective Theories and Modifications of Gravity},
author = {C. P. Burgess},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.4295},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Several references added in v2. Contribution to the volume 'Foundations of Space and Time: Reflections on Quantum Gravity', from the meeting held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in celebration of the 70th birthday of Prof George Ellis