Galaxy rotation curves disfavor traditional and self-interacting dark matter halos, preferring a disk component or Einasto function

TL;DR

This study evaluates various dark matter and modified gravity models against galaxy rotation curves, finding that models with dark matter-gas interactions or an Einasto profile fit the data best, while MOND models perform poorly.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of nine models using the SPARC database, highlighting the preference for dark matter-gas interaction models or Einasto profiles over traditional and MOND models.

Findings

Dark matter-gas interaction models improve fit quality.

Einasto halo models fit rotation curves well.

MOND models perform significantly worse.

Abstract

We use the galaxy rotation curves in the SPARC database to compare 9 different dark matter and modified gravity models on an equal footing, paying special attention to the stellar mass-to-light ratios. We compare three non-interacting dark matter models, a self interacting DM (SIDM) model, two hadronically interacting DM (HIDM) models, and three modified Newtonian dynamics type models: MOND, Radial Acceleration Relation (RAR) and a maximal-disk model. The models with DM-gas interactions generate a disky component in the dark matter, which significantly improves the fits to the rotation curves compared to all other models except an Einasto halo; the MOND-type models give significantly worse fits.