Dark Matter, Rotation Curves, and the Morphology of Galaxies

Abstract

In this thesis, we investigate some aspects of dark matter phenomenology and its predictive power in explaining the flattening of galaxy rotation curves at large distances. After outlining the Standard Model of particle physics, its symmetries and possible extensions in Chapter 2, we review key facts about dark matter and various types of dark matter models in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4 we discuss some alternatives to cold dark matter, which include modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), superfluid dark matter and emergent gravity, and highlight the difficulties that are encountered in attempts to extend these frameworks to full-fledged relativistic settings. In Chapter 5 we turn to explore a completely different option, namely that flattened rotation curves reflect the presence of prolate dark-matter bulges or string-like objects around galaxies, without the need for any infrared modification of gravity. To test this model, we fit a number of galaxy rotation curves and find that the presence of a string-like filament yields improvement in fit quality of about 40-70 % in some cases, while the deformation of a dark halo yields only modest improvement by about 6-7 %. In Chapter 6 we collect some concluding remarks.