The Self Creation Challenge to the Cosmological 'concordance Model'

It is important to have viable alternatives against which standard theories may be tested. In this paper such an alternative to the standard cosmological 'concordance model' is examined. It is shown how the theory of Self Creation Cosmology is as concordant as the standard model with cosmological observations and local experiments. This is due to a degeneracy in the interpretation of the data. However, unlike the standard model, Self Creation Cosmology does not require the speculative hypotheses of inflation, dark matter or dark energy. The theory is highly predictive and when its only free parameter, H, is fixed empirically, all other cosmological constraints are then determined and are remarkably consistent with observations. It is highly testable and as such 'throws down the gauntlet' before General Relativity in the geodetic precession measurement that should be made by the Gravity Probe B satellite towards the middle of the year 2004. This will be the first physical experiment that has the capability of distinguishing between the two theories. The new theory predicts a geodetic precession of 5/6 of that of General Relativity, that is, Self Creation theory predicts a precession about a direction perpendicular to the plane of the orbit of 5.5 arc/sec/yr. The predictions of the 'frame dragging' precessions of that experiment are equal in both theories. Furthermore, there are also at least two other experiments that will distinguish between the two theories, which ask the questions, " Do photons fall at the same rate as particles? " and " Is there a cutoff to the Casimir force that approaches zero as curvature approaches flatness? " It is suggested that these experiments be performed at the earliest opportunity if the geodetic measurement should indeed prove to be consistent with the Self Creation theory.