Raising galaxy rotation curves via dressing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a gauge-invariant model of galaxy dynamics using the Dressing Field Method, which produces rotation curves mimicking dark matter effects and fits observed data well.

Contribution

It applies the Dressing Field Method to general relativity with scalar fields to derive galaxy rotation curves without dark matter.

Findings

DFM-derived curves fit observed galaxy data well.

The model produces rotation curves combining Keplerian and constant velocity terms.

Demonstrates a gauge-invariant approach to galaxy dynamics.

Abstract

We present a manifestly diffeomorphism-invariant simple model of galaxy dynamics obtained by applying the Dressing Field Method (DFM) to a general-relativistic system comprising the metric and four scalar fields, phenomenologically representing the four-velocity of a cosmological fluid or dust field. The DFM, a systematic tool for extracting the gauge-invariant content in general-relativistic theories, provides a physical coordinatization that yields corrective terms to the rotational velocity profile. These corrections produce galaxy rotation curves that combine a Keplerian and a constant velocity terms, effectively emulating a Dark Matter contribution. We compare DFM-derived rotation curves to observed data for spiral galaxies, from the Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves (SPARC) database, showing that the DFM allows to fit them well.