Probing Brownstein-Moffat Gravity via Numerical Simulations

Abstract

In the standard scenario of the Newtonian gravity, a late-type galaxy (i.e., a spiral galaxy) is well described by a disk and a bulge embedded in a halo mainly composed by dark matter. In Brownstein-Moffat gravity, there is a claim that late-type galaxy systems would not need to have halos, avoiding as a result the dark matter problem, i.e., a modified gravity (non-Newtonian) would account for the galactic structure with no need of dark matter. In the present paper, we probe this claim via numerical simulations. Instead of using a "static galaxy," where the centrifugal equilibrium is usually adopted, we probe the Brownstein-Moffat gravity dynamically via numerical $N$-body simulations.