MASSIVE GRAVITONS IN GENERAL-RELATIVITY

In the framework of a generalisation of linear gravitation to the case when the gravitons have nonzero rest mass, we obtain a result analogo us to that obtained by Regge and Wheeler, that is, the energy of the g ravitational waves is trapped in the 'material' (interior) metric of t he curved space-time. We show that the concept of a nonzero rest mass graviton may be defined in two ways: (i) phenomenologically, by introd ucing of a mass term in the linear Lagrangian density, as in Proca ele ctrodynamics, and (ii) self-consistently by solving Einstein's equatio ns in the conformally flat case. We find that the rest mass of the gra viton may be given in terms of the three fundamental constants (gravit ational, Planck, and light velocity constants) and it is a function of the density of cosmic matter.