The DR3 Milky Way Rotation Curve within the Framework of General Relativity Without Dark Matter

Abstract

The GAIA DR3 measurement campaign has produced a MW rotation curve with significantly improved accuracy compared with previous campaigns. In 2023, several authors presented accurate rotation curves calculated from these measurements, within the framework of the dark matter hypothesis. They established new estimates of the Milky Way’s dynamical mass of around [Formula: see text]. Some of these authors showed that, from a radial distance of around 18[Formula: see text]kpc, the Milky Way presents a significant Keplerian decay in the rotation curve, rather than a plateau zone. In this paper, we use a set of data tables from four different authors in a single database. Without making any assumptions about the existence or absence of dark matter, we analyze the observed radial acceleration as a function of the baryonic acceleration. We show that the observed acceleration is an accurate linear function of the baryonic acceleration, making the dark matter hypothesis problematic. Furthermore, we prove that the MW rotation curve can be calculated within the framework of General Relativity without dark matter, using the dynamic metric we published earlier in 2023: “On the incompleteness’ of Birkhoff’s theorem: A new approach to the central symmetric Gravitational Field in Vacuum Space.” In particular, this metric allows us to predict and model the Keplerian decay zone of the rotation curve. Our dynamical mass evaluation does not differ significantly from the value [Formula: see text].

Keywords

• Milky way
• GAIA
• DR3
• rotation curve
• Schwarzschild
• MOND