Related papers: Distinguishing Dark Matter from Modified Gravity
The current accelerated expansion of our universe could be due to an unknown energy component (dark energy) or a modification to general relativity (modified gravity). In the literature, it has been proposed that combining the probes of the…
It is now, generally, believed that the presence of some form of dark matter is essential to explain the flat rotation curves of galaxies, and anomalous large velocities of galaxies in the clusters and superclusters. This dark matter turns…
Galactic rotation curves are often considered the first robust evidence for the existence of dark matter. However, even in the presence of a dark matter halo, other galactic-scale observations, such as the Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation and…
It has been suggested that Einstein's theory of General Relativity can be modified to accomodate mismatches between the gravitational field and luminous matter on a wide range of scales. Covariant theories of modified gravity generically…
Modern astrophysical and cosmological models are faced with two severe theoretical difficulties, that can be summarized as the dark energy and the dark matter problems. Relative to the former, it has been stated that cosmology has entered a…
An obvious criterion to classify theories of modified gravity is to identify their gravitational degrees of freedom and their coupling to the metric and the matter sector. Using this simple idea, we show that any theory which depends on the…
Dark matter is one of the pillars of the current standard model of structure formation: it is assumed to constitute most of the matter in the Universe. However, it can so far only be probed indirectly through its gravitational effects, and…
The severity of the mass discrepancy in spiral galaxies is strongly correlated with the central surface brightness of the disk. Progressively lower surface brightness galaxies have ever larger mass discrepancies. No other parameter…
The success of the Lambda-CDM model on large scales does not extend down to galaxy scales. We list a dozen problems of the dark matter hypothesis, some of which arise in specific models for the formation of structure in the universe, while…
The combination of GR and the Standard Model disagrees with numerous observations on scales from our Solar System up. In the concordance model of cosmology, these contradictions are removed or alleviated by the introduction of three…
We pioneer the black hole mass gap as a powerful new tool for constraining modified gravity theories. These theories predict fifth forces that alter the structure and evolution of population-III stars, exacerbating the pair-instability.…
The evolution of disk galaxies in modified gravity is studied by using high-resolution N-body simulations. More specifically, we use the weak field limit of two modified gravity theories, i.e., nonlocal gravity (NLG) and…
Recent observations of ultra-dwarf galaxy NGC1052-DF2 started an interesting discussion between dark matter hypothesis and modified gravity theories. Reported low velocity dispersion (< 10.5 km/s at 90% confidence level) derived from the…
It is generally thought that galaxies are embedded in dark matter halos extending well beyond their luminous matter. The existence of these galactic halos is mainly derived from the larger than expected velocities of stars and gas in the…
There is now strong observational evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The standard explanation invokes an unknown "dark energy" component. But such scenarios are faced with serious theoretical problems, which has…
Modifications of General Relativity generically contain additional degrees of freedom that can mediate forces between matter particles. One of the common manifestations of a fifth force in alternative gravity theories is a difference…
We review galaxy formation and dynamics under the MOND hypothesis of modified gravity, and compare to similar galaxies in Newtonian dynamics with dark matter. The aim is to find peculiar predictions both to discriminate between various…
The scenario consistent with a wealth of observations for the missing mass problem is that of weakly interacting dark matter particles. However, arguments or proposals for a Newtonian or relativistic modified gravity scenario continue to be…
Observations show that about the 20% of the Universe is composed by invisible (dark) matter (DM), for which many candidates have been proposed. In particular, the anomalous behavior of rotational curves of galaxies (i.e. the flattening at…
If modified gravity holds, but the weak lensing analysis is done in the standard way, one finds that dark matter halos have peculiar shapes, not following the standard Navarro-Frenk-White profiles, and are fully predictable from the…