The outskirts of globular clusters as modified gravity probes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the outskirts of globular clusters as potential tests for modified gravity theories, finding observational and modeling evidence consistent with predictions of such theories like MOND, especially regarding velocity dispersion profiles.

Contribution

The study constructs dynamical models of globular clusters under modified gravity, demonstrating consistency with observed velocity dispersions and mass scaling, supporting modified gravity as an alternative to dark matter.

Findings

Velocity dispersion profiles level off beyond expected Keplerian decline.

Models with inner Newtonian and outer modified gravity regions fit observational data.

Asymptotic velocity dispersions scale with the fourth root of total mass, as predicted by modified gravity.

Abstract

In the context of theories of gravity modified to account for the observed dynamics of galactic systems without the need to invoke the existence of dark matter, a prediction often appears regarding low acceleration systems: wherever $a$ falls below $a_{0}$ one should expect a transition from the classical to the modified gravity regime.This modified gravity regime will be characterised by equilibrium velocities which become independent of distance, and which scale with the fourth root of the total baryonic mass, $V^{4} \propto M$. The two above conditions are the well known flat rotation curves and Tully-Fisher relations of the galactic regime. Recently however, a similar phenomenology has been hinted at, at the outskirts of Galactic globular clusters, precisely in the region where $a<a_{0}$. Radial profiles of the projected velocity dispersion have been observed to stop decreasing along Keplerian expectations, and to level off at constant values beyond the radii where $a<a_{0}$. We have constructed gravitational equilibrium dynamical models for a number of globular clusters for which the above gravitational anomaly has been reported, using a modified Newtonian force law which yields equilibrium velocities equivalent to MOND. We find models can be easily constructed having an inner Newtonian region and an outer modified gravity regime, which reproduce all observational constraints, surface brightness profiles, total masses and line of sight velocity dispersion profiles. Through the use of detailed single stellar population models tuned individually to each of the globular clusters in question, we derive estimates of the total masses for these systems. Interestingly, we find that the asymptotic values of the velocity dispersion profiles are consistent with scaling with the fourth root of the total masses, as expected under modified gravity scenarios.