Oscillating Cosmological Force Modifies Newtonian Dynamics

Abstract

In the Newtonian limit of general relativity a force acting on a test mass in a central gravitational field is conventionally defined by the attractive Newtonian gravity (inverse square) term plus a small repulsive cosmological force, which is proportional to the slow acceleration of the universe expansion. In this paper we considered the cosmological-force correction due to fast quantum oscillations of the universe scale factor as a potential solution of the cosmological constant problem. These fast fluctuations of the cosmological scale factor violate Lorentz invariance at the Planck scale, and they induce strong changes to the current sign and magnitude of the average cosmological force, thus making it one of the potential probable causes for the modification of Newtonian dynamics in galaxy-scale systems. The modified cosmological force may be responsible for the recently discovered “cosmic-clock” behavior of disk galaxies in the low-redshift universe. The obtained results have strong implications for astroparticle physics since they demonstrate that typical galaxy rotation curves may be obtained without (or almost without) dark-matter particles.