Controversies in the History of the Radiation Reaction problem in General Relativity

Beginning in the early 1950s, experts in the theory of general relativity debated vigorously whether the theory predicted the emission of gravitational radiation from binary star systems. For a time, doubts also arose on whether gravitational waves could carry any energy. Since radiation phenomena have played a key role in the development of 20th century field theories, it is the main purpose of this paper to examine the reasons for the growth of scepticism regarding radiation in the case of the gravitational field. Although the focus is on the period from the mid-1930s to about 1960, when the modern study of gravitational waves was developing, some attention is also paid to the more recent and unexpected emergence of experimental data on gravitational waves which considerably sharpened the debate on certain controversial aspects of the theory of gravity waves. I analyze the use of the earlier history as a rhetorical device in review papers written by protagonists of the “quadrupole formula controversy” in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I argue that relativists displayed a lively interest in the historical background to the problem and exploited their knowledge of the literature to justify their own work and their assessment of the contemporary state of the subject. This illuminates the role of a scientific field’s sense of its own history as a mediator in scientific controversy.