Finding the Schwarzschild metric from gravity’s Exterior and Interior Effacement algebra

Abstract

In the author’s previous publications, a recursive linear algebraicmethod was introduced for obtaining (sans gravitational radiation) the full potential expansions for the gravitational metric field components and the Lagrangian for the general N-body system. Two apparent properties of gravity—Exterior Effacement and Interior Effacement—were defined and enforced to obtain the recursive algebra, especially for the motion-independent potential expansions of the general N-body situation. The linear algebraic equations of this method permit determination of the potential coefficients at any order n^† of the expansions in terms of the lower order coefficients. To illustrate the capabilities of this algebraic method by enforcing exterior and interior effacement, and focusing on only a needed few potential series of the full motion-independent potential expansions, the complete exterior metric field for a single, spherically symmetric mass source is here obtained—the Schwarzschild metric field of general relativity (the Eddington PPN parameter γ = 1) as well as its generalization if the isotropic spatial metric potential’s linearized form is −g_SS(γ, r) = 1 + 2γGm/c²r +.... with γ ≠ 1 are obtained.