Weyl-Invariant Gravity and the Nature of Dark Matter

by Dr. Meir Shimon

Tau

at Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

Wed, 28 Apr 2021, 11:10
Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

Abstract

The apparent missing mass in Galaxies and Galaxy clusters, commonly viewed as evidence for dark matter, could possibly originate from gradients in the gravitational coupling parameter, G, and active gravitational mass, M_{act}, rather than hypothetical beyond-the-standard-model particles. We argue that in (the weak field limit of) a Weyl-invariant extension of general relativity, one can simply affect the change Φ_{b}(x) → Φ_{b}(x) + Φ_{DM}(x), where Φ_{b} is the baryon-sourced potential and Φ_{DM} is the 'excess' potential. This is compensated by gradients of GM_{act} and a fractional increase of O(−4Φ_{DM}(x)) in the baryon density, well below current detection thresholds on all relevant scales.

Created on 24-04-2021 by Zitrin, Adi (zitrin)
Updaded on 24-04-2021 by Zitrin, Adi (zitrin)