Gravitational Theory, Galaxy Rotation Curves and Cosmology without Dark Matter

Abstract

Einstein gravity coupled to a massive skew symmetric field F_{\mu\nu\lambda} leads to an acceleration law that modifies the Newtonian law of attraction between particles. We use a framework of non-perturbative renormalization group equations as well as observational input to characterize special renormalization group trajectories to allow for the running of the effective gravitational coupling G and the coupling of the skew field to matter. The latter lead to an increase of Newton's constant at large galactic and cosmological distances. For weak fields a fit to the flat rotation curves of galaxies is obtained in terms of the mass (mass-to-light ratio M/L) of galaxies. The fits assume that the galaxies are not dominated by exotic dark matter and that the effective gravitational constant G runs with distance scale. The equations of motion for test particles yield predictions for the solar system and the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16 that agree with the observations. The gravitational lensing of clusters of galaxies can be explained without exotic dark matter. An FLRW cosmological model with an effective G=G(t) running with time can lead to consistent fits to cosmological data without assuming the existence of exotic cold dark matter.