Cats’ ability to manipulate passive gravitational mass

Establish whether domestic cats (Felis catus), possibly along with a few closely related felid species, are capable of manipulating their passive gravitational mass, uniquely within the animal kingdom.

Background

The paper proposes Modified Feline Gravitational Dynamics (MOFEGD) as a framework in which cats can alter their passive gravitational mass while leaving inertial mass unchanged, thereby violating the weak equivalence principle. This challenges the standard assumption—used in Newtonian gravity, general relativity, and many modified gravity models—that inertial and gravitational mass are equal for all bodies.

The conjecture is motivated by anecdotal and historical observations of seemingly gravity-defying feline behavior and is developed through a phenomenological Newtonian model and a generally covariant extension involving a scalar field that couples to a cat’s internal state. Confirming this conjecture would have implications for equivalence principle tests and for the proposed scalar-mediated coupling unique to felines.