Could Flattened Disks Explain Galaxy Rotation Without Dark Matter?

[ek]

Authors: F. I. Cooperstock, S. Tieu

A galaxy is modeled as a stationary axially symmetric pressure-free fluid in general relativity. For the weak gravitational fields under consideration, the field equations and the equations of motion ultimately lead to one linear and one nonlinear equation relating the angular velocity to the fluid density. It is shown that the rotation curves for the Milky Way, NGC 3031, NGC 3198 and NGC 7331 are consistent with the mass density distributions of the visible matter concentrated in flattened disks. Thus the need for a massive halo of exotic dark matter is removed. For these galaxies we determine the mass density for the luminous threshold as 10^{-21.75} kg.m$^{-3}.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0507619

It's authoured by a cosmologist at my school. It's a little heady for me but I thought some here could take something from it and its very important conclusion, so I thought I'd share it.

Thoughts? Total BS? Maybe onto something?

 

[SpaceTiger]

See https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=97876".