Kinematics of Radion field: A possible source of dark matter

TL;DR

This paper explores a higher-dimensional brane-world model where the dynamics of the radion field could explain dark matter phenomena and address the missing mass problem in galaxy clusters.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach linking radion field kinematics in a brane-world scenario to the dark matter problem, providing a potential alternative to particle dark matter.

Findings

Radion field dynamics can mimic dark matter effects in galaxy clusters.

The model offers explanations for galactic rotation curves without dark matter particles.

Higher-dimensional effects influence observable gravitational phenomena.

Abstract

The discrepancy between observed virial and baryonic mass in galaxy clusters have lead to the missing mass problem. To resolve this, a new, non-baryonic matter field, known as dark matter has been invoked. However, till date no possible constituents of the dark matter components are known. This has led to various models, by modifying gravity at large distances to explain the missing mass problem. The modification to gravity appears very naturally when effective field theory on a lower dimensional manifold, embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime is considered. It has been shown that in a scenario with two lower dimensional manifolds separated by a finite distance is capable to address the missing mass problem, which in turn determines the kinematics of the brane separation. Consequences for galactic rotation curves are also described.