# Curvature, Galactic Dynamics and Cosmic Repulsion11footnote 1astro-ph/9811256, November 16, 1998

## Abstract

We show that a cosmological negative spatial curvature can account for both a recently identified phenomenological imprint of the global Hubble flow on galactic rotation curves and for the recently detected cosmic repulsion and cosmic acceleration. Even though such a negative curvature (a curvature which a galactic rest frame observer recognizes as a universal linear potential which gives rise to a universal acceleration) is only achievable in standard gravity by extreme fine tuning, nonetheless, it is naturally realizable in conformal gravity, a currently viable, fully covariant, candidate alternate gravitational theory.

With the discovery of cosmic repulsion, the standard Newton-Einstein theory of gravity now faces a quite severe new challenge, with the recent type Ia Supernovae high $`z`$ data requiring values for the parameters of the standard cosmology which are proving extremely difficult to justify. Specifically, the new data appear to have not only unambiguously excluded the highly popular inflationary universe paradigm of a $`k=0`$ spatially flat universe with a matter density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M(t)`$ which is always equal to one, but equally, once $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M(t)`$ is no longer equal to one, the only possible standard cosmologies which then are permitted by the data are all found to require some form or other of fine-tuning. Moreover, once $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M(t)`$ is actually allowed to evolve in time, it would eventually have to depart radically from one in the very late universe, with its current closeness to one then being merely an artifact of the arbitrary time at which we actually are making observations. Hence its current era parameterization in terms of Newton’s constant $`G`$ would appear to be accidental, to thus remove one of the primary reasons for believing that $`G`$ is necessarily a fundamental parameter which controls gravity on all scales and at all strengths.

Given the seriousness of this situation we have suggested that the issue may not be that of trying to solve fine tuning problems at all, but rather that such problems may instead be an indicator that the standard cosmology might not in fact be the right one at all, with the extrapolation of standard gravity from its weak gravity solar system origins to altogether different distances and strengths simply being unreliable. Instead, we proposed an alternate, equally covariant, gravitational theory, viz. conformal gravity (a theory, interestingly, with no explicit fundamental $`G`$), a theory which departs from the standard theory precisely where the standard theory is having problems, to thus provide a very different extrapolation of standard Schwarzschild metric solar system wisdom. Characteristic of this alternate theory (see P. D. Mannheim, Phys. Rev. D58, 103511 (1998) for details) is that a $`k<0`$ topologically open universe is naturally favored (i.e. without fine tuning), with such a negatively curved universe then precisely producing the recently detected cosmic repulsion. Essentially, a space with negative curvature acts like a diverging refractive medium which causes particles to accelerate away from each other (positive curvature would lead to deceleration), with gravity (viz. curvature) itself then doing the repelling, with gravity thus acquiring an explicit repulsive component on cosmological distance scales, even as it still remains attractive on solar system ones.

Given such contrasting gravitational behaviors on cosmic and stellar distance scales, it is immediately natural to ask what happens at intermediate distances such as galactic, and, quite remarkably, it was found (P. D. Mannheim, ApJ 479, 659 (1997)) that then both effects are at play. Specifically, it was found that in conformal gravity stellar sources give rise to potentials of the form $`V^{}(r)=\beta ^{}c^2/r+\gamma ^{}c^2r/2`$, with the integration of both of these terms over the luminous matter distribution of a galaxy with $`N^{}`$ stars then producing a net acceleration $`g_{loc}`$ (viz. one which behaves asymptotically as $`N^{}\beta ^{}c^2/R^2+N^{}\gamma ^{}c^2/2`$) due to the local matter present in any given galaxy. At the same time, the global matter outside of each galaxy (viz. the Hubble flow) was then found to generate a further linear potential term, viz. the universal $`g_{glob}=\gamma _0c^2/2`$, coming precisely from the negative curvature of the universe according to $`\gamma _0/2=(k)^{1/2}`$, so that the total acceleration on a test particle in any galaxy would then be given by $`g_{tot}=g_{loc}+g_{glob}`$, with the local, static, effect of global, comoving, cosmic repulsion thus being to push particles towards the centers of galaxies and cause their centripetal accelerations to increase. Further, through the use of this $`g_{tot}`$ parameter free (and dark matter free) fitting to a wide class of galactic rotation curves was then obtained with an explicit value of $`\gamma _0=3.06\times 10^{30}`$ cm<sup>-1</sup> being extracted from the data. Galactic dynamics thus provides direct support for negative spatial curvature, with the inferred value for $`(k)^{1/2}`$ encouragingly being found to precisely be a typical cosmologically significant length scale.

Given this particular length scale we immediately see that the linear potential term first becomes competitive with the Newtonian one on none other than galactic distance scales, to thus explain not only why solar system physics is thus unaffected by conformal gravity, but also to identify at exactly what point departures from the luminous Newtonian contribution first set in. The spatial curvature of the universe thus fixes the scale at which standard gravity needs to introduce dark matter in order to avoid failing to fit data. The emergence of the universal acceleration $`\gamma _0c^2/2`$ is reminiscent of the acceleration $`a_0`$ of Milgrom’s MOND theory.<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2The relation $`a_04\gamma _0c^21.1\times 10^8`$ cm s<sup>-2</sup> is found to hold numerically, with our relation $`g_{tot}=g_{loc}+\gamma _0c^2/2`$ even being a MOND type formula, though the one used in MOND fits is the somewhat different, ad hoc, non-analytic $`g_{tot}=g_N\{1/2+(g_N^2+4a_0^2)^{1/2}/2g_N\}^{1/2}`$ where $`g_N`$ is due to the Newtonian $`V^{}(r)=\beta ^{}c^2/r`$ potential alone. Now while conformal gravity and MOND differ as to exactly how $`g_{tot}`$ is to depend on $`\gamma _0`$ or $`a_0`$ in the region where they are relevant, nonetheless it is important to note that both the theories recognize that it is precisely a universal acceleration with a cosmologically significant magnitude which is to set the scale at which departures from the luminous Newtonian expectation are to first set in (a fact which conformal gravity even derives).<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3Evidence for this selfsame acceleration has been found even in the solar system apparently, and if the Pioneer satellite data study of J. D. Anderson et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2858 (1998) turns out to be correct, these data would then herald no less than a breakdown of Newtonian gravity within the solar system itself, so that no matter what one’s views of alternate gravity, the case for extrapolating Newtonian gravity to larger distances without modification is severely weakened, as is then the very reason for believing in dark matter at all. Since, as emphasized by S. S. McGaugh in these proceedings, galactic data certainly seem to be intimately aware of this onset scale, it would seem that if dark matter is to be correct, dark matter should then know about such a scale too, something not all that easy to achieve in a $`k=0`$ paradigm where there is no spatial curvature to potentially provide such a scale. Thus it would appear that a universal acceleration of magnitude $`10^8`$ cm s<sup>-2</sup> is significant both cosmologically and galactically, and that the spatial curvature of the universe may not in fact be zero. This work has been supported in part by the Department of Energy under grant No. DE-FG02-92ER40716.00.