Gravitational Gauge Field and Classical Tests of Gauge Theory of Gravity

A systematic method is developed to study classical motion of a mass point in gravitational gauge field. First, the formulation of gauge theory of gravity in arbitrary curvilinear coordinates is given. Then in spherical coordinates system, a spherical symmetric solution of the field equation of gravitational gauge field is obtained, which is just the Schwarzschild solution. In gauge theory of gravity, the equation of motion of a classical mass point in gravitational gauge field is given by Newton’s second law of motion. A relativistic form of the gravitational force on a mass point is deduced in this paper. Based on the spherical symmetric solution of the field equation and Newton’s second law of motion, we can discuss classical tests of gauge theory of gravity, including the deflection of light by the sun, the precession of the perihelia of the orbits of the inner planets and the time delay of radar echoes passing the sun. It is found that the theoretical predictions of these classical tests given by gauge theory of gravity are completely the same as those given by general relativity. From the study in this paper, an important qualitative conclusion on the nature of gravity is that gravity can be treated as a kind of physical interactions in flat Minkowski space-time, and the equation of motion of mass point in gravitational field can be given by Newton’s second law of motion. PACS Numbers: 04.80.Cc, 04.25.-g, 04.60.-m.