Mimicking dark matter in galaxy clusters through a non-minimal gravitational coupling with matter

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a specific non-minimal coupling between scalar curvature and matter can replicate dark matter effects in galaxy clusters, aligning with observational data from Abell cluster A586 and others.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-minimal gravitational coupling model that successfully mimics dark matter in galaxy clusters using observational data.

Findings

The model accurately describes the total density profiles of galaxy clusters.

It reproduces the observed small baryonic component in clusters.

The approach is validated with data from Abell A586 and Chandra observations.

Abstract

In this work, one shows that a specific non-minimal coupling between the scalar curvature and matter can mimic the dark matter component of galaxy clusters. For this purpose, one assesses the Abell cluster A586, a massive nearby relaxed cluster of galaxies in virial equilibrium, where direct mass estimates and strong-lensing determinations are possible. One then extends the dark matter mimicking to a large sample of galaxy clusters whose density profiles are obtained from the Chandra high quality data, also in virial equilibrium. The total density, which generally follows a cusped profile and reveals a very small baryonic component, can be effectively described within this framework.