Microlensing, Newton-Einstein Gravity and Conformal Gravity

The recent discovery of cosmic repulsion represents a major challenge to standard gravity, adding an apparent missing energy problem to its still not yet adequately resolved missing mass one, while simultaneously requiring the current universe to be a very special, fine-tuned one. We suggest that the resolution of these difficulties lies not in the existence of more and more exotic gravitational sources, but rather in the lack of reliability of the extrapolation of standard g...

We present a simple, closed form expression for the potential of an axisymmetric disk of stars interacting through gravitational potentials of the form $V(r)=-\beta /r+\gamma r/2$, the potential associated with fundamental sources in the conformal invariant fourth order theory of gravity which has recently been advanced by Mannheim and Kazanas as a candidate alternative to the standard second order Einstein theory. Using the model we obtain a reasonable fit to some representa...

It has been shown by Paczy\'nski that gravitational microlensing is potentially a useful method for detecting the dark constituents of the halo of our galaxy, if their mass lies in the approximate domain $10^{-6} < M/M_{\odot} < 10^{-1}$. Microlensing observations now under way monito several millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud and in the Galactic Bulge. Here I discuss the main features of the microlensing events: in particular their rates and probability, taking ...

We study the possibility that galactic rotation curves can be explained by a gravitational potential that contains a linear term as well as a Newtonian one. This hypothesis, suggested by conformal gravity, does allow good fits to the galactic rotation curves of the galaxies we study, which have a wide range of luminosities. However, the universality one might have expected of the parameter describing the strength of the linear potential does not emerge. Instead, a different r...

We study here, using the Mannheim-Kazanas solution of Weyl conformal theory, the mass decomposition in the representative subsample of $57$ early-type elliptical lens galaxies of the SLACS on board the HST. We begin by showing that the solution need not be an exclusive solution of conformal gravity but can also be viewed as a solution of a class of $f(R)$ gravity theories coupled to non-linear electrodynamics thereby rendering the ensuing results more universal. Since lensing...

We present the basics of microlensing and give an overview of the results obtained so far. We also describe a scenario in which dark clusters of MACHOs (Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects) and cold molecular clouds (mainly of $H_2$) naturally form in the halo at galactocentric distances larger than 10-20 kpc. Moreover, we discuss various experimental tests of this picture in particular a $\gamma$-ray emission from the clouds due to the scattering of high-energy cosmic...

Conformal gravity theory can explain observed flat rotation curves of galaxies without invoking hypothetical dark matter. Within this theory, we obtain a generic formula for the sizes of galaxies exploiting the stability criterion of circular orbits. It is found that different galaxies have different finite sizes uniquely caused by the assumed quadratic potential of cosmological origin. Observations on where circular orbits might actually terminate could thus be very instruct...

If compact baryonic objects contribute significantly to the dark matter in our Galaxy, their mass function will present vital clues for galaxy formation theories and star formation processes in the early Universe. Here we discuss what one might expect to learn about the mass function of Galactic dark matter from microlensing and from direct searches in the infrared and optical wavebands. Current microlensing results from the \eros\/ collaboration already constrain halo mass f...

Recently, several interesting proposals were made modifying the law of gravity on large scales, within a sensible relativistic formulation. This allows a precise formulation of the idea that such a modification might account for galaxy rotation curves, instead of the usual interpretation of these curves as evidence for dark matter. We here summarize several observational constraints which any such modification must satisfy, and which we believe make more challenging any inter...

We show that current microlensing and dynamical observations of the Galaxy permit to set interesting constraints on the Dark Matter local density and profile slope towards the galactic centre. Assuming state-of-the-art models for the distribution of baryons in the Galaxy, we find that the most commonly discussed Dark Matter profiles (viz. Navarro-Frenk-White and Einasto) are consistent with microlensing and dynamical observations, while extreme adiabatically compressed profil...