Quantum vacuum and dark matter

TL;DR

This paper explores how the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum could potentially explain various dark matter phenomena, challenging traditional dark matter and modified gravity theories.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum vacuum polarization can account for multiple dark matter-related observations, offering a unified alternative explanation.

Findings

Quantum vacuum polarization explains galaxy halo surface densities.

It accounts for cored dark matter profiles in dwarf galaxies.

The framework explains dark matter distribution post-cluster collisions.

Abstract

Recently, the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum was proposed as alternative to the dark matter paradigm. In the present paper we consider four benchmark measurements: the universality of the central surface density of galaxy dark matter haloes, the cored dark matter haloes in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the non-existence of dark disks in spiral galaxies and distribution of dark matter after collision of clusters of galaxies (the Bullet cluster is a famous example). Only some of these phenomena (but not all of them) can (in principle) be explained by the dark matter and the theories of modified gravity. However, we argue that the framework of the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum allows the understanding of the totality of these phenomena.