Conformal Gravity: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

TL;DR

This paper reviews how conformal gravity, which minimally modifies general relativity without new fields, can explain dark matter and dark energy phenomena through fits to observational data.

Contribution

It demonstrates that conformal gravity and a conformal Higgs model can account for dark matter and dark energy effects without introducing new physical fields.

Findings

Conformal gravity fits galactic rotation curves without dark matter.

The model explains galactic halos and Hubble expansion including dark energy.

No new physical fields are needed in this theoretical framework.

Abstract

This short review examines recent progress in understanding dark matter, dark energy, and galactic halos using theory that departs minimally from standard particle physics and cosmology. Strict conformal symmetry (local Weyl scaling covariance), postulated for all elementary massless fields, retains standard fermion and gauge boson theory but modifies Einstein-Hilbert general relativity and the Higgs scalar field model, with no new physical fields. Subgalactic phenomenology is retained. Without invoking dark matter, conformal gravity and a conformal Higgs model fit empirical data on galactic rotational velocities, galactic halos, and Hubble expansion including dark energy.