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Modeling the Dark Matter of Galaxy Clusters Using the Tensor-Vector-Scalar Theory of Alternate Gravity

Posted on:2014-06-30Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:Ohio UniversityCandidate:Ragozzine, BrettFull Text:PDF
GTID:1450390008462448Subject:Astrophysics
Abstract/Summary:
The invocation of dark matter in the universe is predicated upon gravitational observations that cannot be explained by the amount of luminous matter that we detect. There is an ongoing debate over which gravitational model is correct. The work herein tests a prescription of gravity theory known as Tensor-Vector-Scalar and is based upon the work of Angus et al. (2007). We add upon this work by extending the sample of galaxy clusters to five and testing the accepted Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) dark matter potential (Navarro et al., 1996). Our independent implementation of this method includes weak gravitational lensing analysis to determine the amount of dark matter in these galaxy clusters by calculating the gas fraction ƒgas = Mgas=Mtot. The ability of the Tensor-Vector-Scalar theory to predict a consistent ƒgas across all galaxy clusters is a measure of its liklihood of being the correct gravity model.
Keywords/Search Tags:Dark matter, Galaxy clusters, Tensor-vector-scalar, Theory
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