Galaxy rotation curves from General Relativity with Renormalization Group corrections

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum corrections from renormalization group arguments can explain galaxy rotation curves without dark matter, fitting observational data as well as or better than alternative theories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of quantum gravity corrections to astrophysics, showing they can account for galaxy rotation curves without dark matter.

Findings

Quantum corrections induce a small variation in G across galaxies.

The model fits galaxy rotation data as well as the Isothermal profile.

Quantum correction model outperforms MOND and STVG in fits.

Abstract

We consider the application of quantum corrections computed using renormalization group arguments in the astrophysical domain and show that, for the most natural interpretation of the renormalization group scale parameter, a gravitational coupling parameter $G$ varying $10^{-7}$ of its value across a galaxy (which is roughly a variation of $10^{-12}$ per light-year) is sufficient to generate galaxy rotation curves in agreement with the observations. The quality of the resulting fit is similar to the Isothermal profile quality once both the shape of the rotation curve and the mass-to-light ratios are considered for evaluation. In order to perform the analysis, we use recent high quality data from nine regular disk galaxies. For the sake of comparison, the same set of data is modeled also for the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and for the recently proposed Scalar Tensor Vector Gravity (STVG). At face value, the model based on quantum corrections clearly leads to better fits than these two alternative theories.