1999/07/28 by Stacy S. McGaugh, Stacy McGaugh
Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Astrophysics #Baryon #Cold dark matter #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy formation and evolution #Galaxy rotation curve #Modified Newtonian dynamics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/312274
published as Astrophys.J. 523 (1999) L99 · 8 pages, 1 figure, AASTeX. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
arxiv created 1999/07/28 · openalex publication_date 1999/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Two hypothesized solutions for the mass discrepancy problem are cold dark matter and modified Newtonian dynamics. The virtues and vices of these very different hypotheses are largely disjointed, making the process of distinguishing between them very dependent on how we weigh disparate lines of evidence. One clear difference is the nature of the principal mass constituent of the universe (cold dark matter or baryons). This difference in the baryon fraction ( f b ≈ 0.1 vs. 1) should leave a distinctive signature in the spectrum of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. Here I discuss some of the signatures that should be detectable in the near future. The most promising appears to be the ratio of the amplitudes of the first two peaks relative to the intervening trough.