CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 3Cosmology and Gravitation TheoriesGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, PhenomenaStellar, planetary, and galactic studies

Cosmological implications of the Gaia Milky Way declining rotation curve

Open access
Coquery, E., Blanchard, A.·2025·Astronomy & Astrophysics
DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/202556337

Published version of a preprint

Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Although the existence of dark matter has been widely acknowledged in the cosmology community, its nature remains unknown despite decades of research. This calls into questions its very existence. This never-ending search for dark matter has led us to consider alternatives. Since increasing the enclosed mass is the only way to explain the flat appearance of galaxies’ rotation curves in a Newtonian framework, modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) theory proposes a modification to Newton’s dynamics when the acceleration of matter at given radius is around or below a threshold value, a 0 . Observed rotation curves, generally flat at large distances, are then usually well reproduced by MOND with an a 0 of ∼1.2 × 10 −10 m/s 2 . However, recent Gaia evidence indicates a decline in the Milky Way rotation curve, which a distinct behavior. Therefore, we examine whether MOND can accommodate the Gaia declining rotation curve of the Milky Way. We first use a standard model to describe the Milky Way’s baryonic components. Secondly, we show that a Navarro, Frenk, and White model is able to fit the decline, assuming a scale radius ( R s ) on the order of 4 kpc. In a third step, we show that the usual MOND paradigm is not able to reproduce the declining part in a standard baryonic model. Finally, we examine whether the MOND theory can accommodate the declining part of the rotation curve when the characteristics of the baryonic components are relaxed. To do so, we used a Markov chain Monte Carlo method to determine the characteristics of the stellar and HI disks, including their masses, that would result in the best possible fit of the decline. We find that the stellar disk should be massive, on the order of 10 11 M ⊙ . The HI disk mass is capped at nearly 1.8 × 10 11 M ⊙ but could also be negligible. Finally, a 0 is consistent with 0, with an upper limit of 0.53 × 10 −10 m/s 2 (95%), a value much lower than that usually advocated to explain standard flat rotation curves in MOND theory (∼1.2 × 10 −10 m/s 2 ).

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1051/0004-6361/202556337

Cites

52 of 52 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 17

  1. Bland-Hawthorn, J. & Gerhard, O. 2016, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 54, 529, arXiv:1602.07702 [astro-ph] · arXiv
  2. Bruneton, J.-P., Liberati, S., Sindoni, L., & Famaey, B. 2009, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2009, 021-021
  3. de Salas, P. F., Malhan, K., Freese, K., Hattori, K., & Valluri, M. 2019, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2019, 037, arXiv:1906.06133 [astroph] · arXiv
  4. Dodelson, S. 2011, International Journal of Modern Physics D, 20, 2749-2753
  5. Khelashvili, M., Rudakovskyi, A., & Hossenfelder, S. 2024, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2401.10202 · arXiv
  6. López-Corredoira, M. & Betancort-Rijo, J. E. 2021, The Astrophysical Journal, 909, 137
  7. McGaugh, S. S. 2004, The Astrophysical Journal, 609, 652
  8. Milgrom, M. 2015, Canadian Journal of Physics, 93, 107
  9. Milgrom, M. 2023, Physical Review D, 108, 084005, arXiv:2305.01589 [astroph, physics:gr-qc, physics:hep-ph] · arXiv
  10. 2006, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 459, 113, arXiv:astro-ph
  11. Mroz, P., Udalski, A., Skowron, D. M., et al. 2019, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 870, L10, arXiv:1810.02131 [astro-ph] · arXiv
  12. Navarro, J. F., Frenk, C. S., & White, S. D. M. 1996, The Astrophysical Journal, 462, 563
  13. Refregier, A. 2003, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 41, 645-668
  14. Roberts, M. S. 1975, in IAU Symposium, Vol. 69, Dynamics of the Solar Systems, ed. A. Hayli, 331
  15. Robin, A. C., Bienaymé, O., Salomon, J. B., et al. 2022, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 667, A98, arXiv:2208.13827 [astro-ph] · arXiv
  16. Skordis, C. & Zło´ snik, T. 2021, Physical Review Letters, 127
  17. Zhou, Y., Li, X., Huang, Y., & Zhang, H. 2023, The Astrophysical journal, 946, 73, publisher: IOP Publishing

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Coquery, E., & Blanchard, A.
Affiliations
  • École Centrale de Lyon (FR)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
ORCID
Blanchard, A.
Venue
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Publisher
EDP Sciences
Published
2025-11
Volume
703
Pages
A88
ISSN
  • 0004-6361 (ISSN-L)
  • 1432-0746
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202556337
OpenAlex
W4414870705
Cited by
3
References
51
Citations by year
2026: 3
FWCI
1.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Funders
  • Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (IN2P3)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
  • Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Keywords
Milky Way rotation curve, MOND, dark matter, MOND acceleration scale, baryonic mass distribution, Navarro-Frenk-White profile, baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, Gaia data

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review