Can General Relativity play a role in galactic dynamics?

Abstract

We use the gravitoelectromagnetic approach to the solutions of Einstein's equations in the weak-field and slow-motion approximation to investigate the impact of General Relativity on galactic dynamics. In particular, we focus on a class of the solutions for the gravitomagnetic field, and show that, contrary to what is expected, they may introduce non negligible corrections to the Newtonian velocity profile. These are the homogeneous solutions (HS) for the gravitomagnetic field, i.e. solutions with vanishing matter currents. We show how recent results about galactic dynamics are connected to this class of solutions.