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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2011
The implication of Dirac's large numbers hypothesis (LNH) that there are two cosmological spacetime metrics, gravitational (E) and atomic (A), is used to formulate the gravitational laws for a general mass system in atomic scale units within such a cosmology. The metric is constrained to be asymptotic to the cosmological A metric at large distance. The gravitational laws are illustrated in application to the case of a single spherical mass immersed in the smoothed out expanding universe. The condition is determined for such a metric to apply approximately just outside a typical member of a cosmic distribution of such masses. Conversely, the condition is given when the influence of the universe as a whole can be neglected outside such a mass. In the latter situation, which applies in particular to stars, a Schwarzschild-type metric is derived which incorporates variable G in accordance with the LNH. The dynamics of freely moving particles and photons in such a metric are examined according to the theory and observational tests are formulated.