MOND vs. dark matter: Research suggests that rotation curves of galaxies stay flat indefinitely

In a discovery that challenges the standard understanding of cosmology, scientists at Case Western Reserve College have unearthed new proof that would reshape our notion of the cosmos.

Tobias Mistele, a post-doctoral scholar within the Division of Astronomy at Case Western Reserve’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, pioneered a revolutionary approach utilizing “gravitational lensing” to delve into the enigmatic realm of dark matter. He discovered that the rotation curves of galaxies stay flat for thousands and thousands of sunshine years with no sign of ending.

The work has been published on the pre-print server arXiv.

Scientists have beforehand believed that the rotation curves of galaxies should decline the farther out you peer into space.

Historically, the habits of stars inside galaxies has puzzled astronomers. In response to Newtonian gravity, stars on the outer edges ought to be slower as a consequence of diminished gravitational pull. This was not noticed, resulting in the inference of dark matter. However even dark matter halos ought to come to an finish, so rotation curves shouldn’t stay flat indefinitely.

Mistele’s evaluation defies this expectation, offering a startling revelation: the affect of what we name dark matter extends far past earlier estimates, stretching not less than 1,000,000 light-years from the galactic middle.

Such a protracted vary impact might point out that dark matter—as we perceive it—won’t exist in any respect.

“This discovering challenges current fashions,” he stated, “suggesting there exist both vastly prolonged dark matter halos or that we have to essentially reevaluate our understanding of gravitational principle.”

Stacy McGaugh, professor and director of the Division of Astronomy within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, stated Mistele’s findings, slated for publication within the Astrophysical Journal Letters, push conventional boundaries.

“The implications of this discovery are profound,” McGaugh stated. “It not solely may redefine our understanding of dark matter, but additionally beckons us to discover different theories of gravity, difficult the very cloth of recent astrophysics.”

Turning Einstein’s principle on its head

The first approach Mistele utilized in his analysis, gravitational lensing, is a phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s principle of common relativity. Primarily, it happens when an enormous object, like a galaxy cluster or perhaps a single large star, bends the trail of sunshine coming from a distant supply. This bending of sunshine occurs as a result of the mass of the item warps the material of spacetime round it. This bending of sunshine by galaxies persists over a lot bigger scales than anticipated.

As a part of the analysis, Mistele plotted out what’s known as Tully–Fisher relation on a chart to spotlight the empirical relationship between the seen mass of a galaxy and its rotation pace.

“We knew this relationship existed,” Mistele stated. “Nevertheless it wasn’t apparent that the connection would maintain the farther you exit. How far does this habits persist? That is the query, as a result of it will possibly’t persist eternally.”

Mistele stated his discovery underscores the need for additional exploration and collaboration inside the scientific group—and the attainable evaluation of different information.

McGaugh famous the Herculean—but, up to now, unsuccessful—efforts within the worldwide particle physics group to detect and establish dark matter particles.

“Both dark matter halos are a lot greater than we anticipated, or the entire paradigm is improper,” McGaugh stated.

“The idea that predicted this habits upfront is the modified gravity principle MOND hypothesized by Moti Milgrom as an alternative choice to dark matter in 1983. So, the apparent and inevitably controversial interpretation of this result’s that dark matter is a chimera; maybe the proof for it’s pointing to some new principle of gravity past what Einstein taught us.”