Probing Yukawian gravitational potential by numerical simulations. I. Changing N-body codes

TL;DR

This paper explores how to use N-body simulations to test Yukawa-like gravitational potentials, which are alternative theories to Newtonian gravity, in order to better understand their implications for cosmic structures.

Contribution

It introduces a method to probe Yukawa-like potentials through numerical simulations, extending the tools used to test alternative gravity theories.

Findings

Demonstrated the feasibility of simulating Yukawa potentials with N-body codes

Provided initial insights into the effects of Yukawa potentials on cosmic structure formation

Suggested constraints on alternative gravity models based on simulation results

Abstract

In the weak field limit general relativity reduces, as is well known, to the Newtonian gravitation. Alternative theories of gravity, however, do not necessarily reduce to Newtonian gravitation; some of them, for example, reduce to Yukawa-like potentials instead of the Newtonian potential. Since the Newtonian gravitation is largely used to model with success the structures of the universe, such as for example galaxies and clusters of galaxies, a way to probe and constrain alternative theories, in the weak field limit, is to apply them to model the structures of the universe. In the present study, we consider how to probe Yukawa-like potentials using N-body numerical simulations.