Testing Galaxy Formation and Dark Matter with Low Surface Brightness\n Galaxies

2021/03/08 by Stacy McGaugh, McGaugh, Stacy · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.05003

openalex publication_date 2021/03/08 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Galaxies are the basic structural element of the universe; galaxy formation\ntheory seeks to explain how these structures came to be. I trace some of the\nfoundational ideas in galaxy formation, with emphasis on the need for\nnon-baryonic cold dark matter. Many elements of early theory did not survive\ncontact with observations of low surface brightness galaxies, leading to the\nneed for auxiliary hypotheses like feedback. The failure points often trace to\nthe surprising predictive successes of an alternative to dark matter, the\nModified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). While dark matter models are flexible in\naccommodating observations, they do not provide the predictive capacity of\nMOND. If the universe is made of cold dark matter, why does MOND get any\npredictions right?\n

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