The bi-metric theory of gravitation

Reference is made to a comment by Yilmaz (Gen. Rel. Grav.; 6:269 (1975)) on a paper by the present author (Rosen. Gen. Rel. Grav.; 4:435 (1973)) in which a covariant theory of gravitation was developed based on the assumption that at every point of space-time there are two metric tensors, a Riemannian tensor gsub(μν) and a flat space tensor γsub(μν) and field equations were set up for determining gsub(μν) in a given coordinate system with a given γsub(μν). It is stated that Yilmaz appears to have misunderstood some of the original paper and has carried out calculations based on auxiliary conditions which were not part of the original theory and which were shown in the original paper to be inconsistent with the field equations. When these calculations lead to an inconsistency it is stated that Yilmaz forgets that the auxilliary conditions are not essential and concludes that the proposed bimetric theory is unsatisfactory. (U.K.)