Are gravitational waves relativistic or Newtonian phenomenon?

[pero2912]

Today, all of the scientific world (including /r/physics) buzzes about BICEP2's discovery of gravitational waves dating from Big Bang as an undispute confirmation of the general relativity. Now I wonder is it really GR? Can't it be explained by simple Newton's mechanics?
I mean if you can explain electromagnetic waves as as a consequence of accelerating charge then sure you can expalain gravitational waves as a consequence of the accelerating mass.

 

[D H]

I mean if you can explain electromagnetic waves as as a consequence of accelerating charge then sure you can expalain gravitational waves as a consequence of the accelerating mass.

Surely not. Gravitation is instantaneous in Newtonian mechanics. There is nothing in the Newtonian description of gravity that allows for gravitational waves.

Another way to look at it: Gravitational waves represent energy lost to the universe by orbiting bodies. This doesn't happen in Newtonian mechanics, where gravitationally orbiting bodies conserve energy and angular momentum.

 

[pero2912]

Is there any intuitive analogy to the EM fields in gravity? I mean, in EM you have two fields, magnetic and electric where one's change produces other's. Is it something similar in GE?

 

[D H]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitoelectromagnetism.

Note that this is a purely relativistic result. There is no such analogy in Newtonian mechanics.

 

[jbunch]

I believe I shouldn't be asking a question under another question but... since the discovery of g waves was brought up...I didn't see the point in opening another thread. My question is this: Why is the discovery of gravitational waves being considered irrefutable proof for the theory of inflation? Are other theory's that include g waves now considered validated? (fecetious) tia

 

[WannabeNewton]

I mean if you can explain electromagnetic waves as as a consequence of accelerating charge then sure you can expalain gravitational waves as a consequence of the accelerating mass.

EM is a relativistic theory, not a Newtonian theory. The field theory needs to predict wave equations for the fields to satisfy (e.g. in vacuum) in order for wave-like solutions to exist for the theory. EM does this but Newtonian gravity does not.

 

[Khashishi]

I don't think the primary source claims anything about proving inflation, so anything to that extent is probably added by bloggers.