"central theory" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you are discussing a certain idea that is important to a particular theory. For example, "The central theory in this study is that increasing temperatures will cause more frequent and powerful storms."
It should take a stand in favor of evolution as a central theory in modern biology.
But the judge's comments on Monday, the final day of the trial, suggested great skepticism over the prosecution's central theory.
For decades, a central theory in psychiatry has been that antidepressants worked by raising serotonin levels in the brain.
In Monday's arguments, the judges expressed deep skepticism about the government's central theory -- that the company illegally maintained a monopoly in computer software.
He also assails Chomsky's central theory that babies are born with a language organ that produces, in effect, a "universal grammar" which could explain why children are able to speak so early.
It seems to embody the album's idealistic central theory, that despite the bitterness and the passive-aggressive silences, a deep musical bond exists between members that can't be broken by lawsuits, bitchy interviews, or perhaps even death.
We have now surveyed the epistemic implications of some central theories of experience.
Peripheral and central theories of the pathophysiology of secondary and primary forms of RES have been proposed.
Pathophysiology of cranial nerve compression rizopathies is still debated as peripheral and central theories are equally considered.
It therefore provides a compelling argument for inclusion of the notion of entrepreneurial agency in consideration of one of the central theories of ethnic entrepreneurship: mixed embeddedness.
Although the ideas are intriguing, the central theories to be tested and the tools necessary to test them have been lacking.
