The Gravitation Theory Review

The most advanced theory of gravitation is so far Einstein's general relativity theory. Some of its drawbacks are the source of attempts to construct a new theory of gravitation. The main drawback of general relativity theory is its incompatibility with the modern quantum theory of elementary particles, which does not allow to create a unified theory of matter. In the general relativity the cause of the gravitational field is the curvature of space-time, which is not a material object. The question of, how non-material space-time can cause a material gravitational field is still here unanswered. Different subdisciplines of classical physics generated different ways of approaching the problem of gravitation. The emergence of special relativity further increased the number of possible approaches and created new requirements that all approaches had to come to terms with. In this book we will survey various alternative approaches to the problem of gravitation pursued around the turn of the last century and try to assess their potential for integrating the contemporary knowledge of gravitation. Here different contributions are made to the discussion about the fundamentals of different approaches to gravitation and their advantages and drawbacks.