Dark matter effects in vacuum spacetime

Abstract

We analyze a toy model describing an empty spacetime in which the motion of a test mass (and the trajectories of photons) evidence the presence of a continuous and homogeneous distribution of matter; however, since the energy-momentum tensor vanishes, no real matter or energy distribution is present at all. Thus, a hypothetical observer will conclude that he is immersed in some sort of dark matter, even though he has no chance to directly detect it. This suggests yet another possibility of explaining the elusive dark matter as a purely dynamical effect due to the curvature of spacetime.

5 pages, 2 figures, expanded with comments about the exact motion and curvature invariants

References in corpus (4)

• A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter
• Confirmation of general relativity on large scales from weak lensing and galaxy velocities
• General relativistic velocity: the alternative to dark matter
• Discrete Matter, Far Fields, and Dark Matter

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Toward physical cosmology: focus on inhomogeneous geometry and its non-perturbative effects
• Hyperbolically symmetric static fluids: A general study
• Duality between static spherically or hyperbolically symmetric solutions and cosmological solutions in scalar-tensor gravity
• Geodesics of the hyperbolically symmetric black hole
• Regular black holes, universes without singularities, and phantom-scalar field transitions
• Hyperbolically symmetric versions of Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi spacetimes
• The Hawking Temperature in the context of Dark Energy for Reissner-Nordstrom and Kerr background
• The Hawking temperature in the context of dark energy for Kerr-Newman and Kerr-Newman-AdS backgrounds
• Thermodynamics for the k-essence Emergent Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter Spacetime
• Quantum cosmology of a Bianchi III LRS geometry coupled to a source free electromagnetic field
• Non-static hyperbolicallly symmetric fluids
• Generalized unimodular gravity in Friedmann and Kantowski-Sachs universes
• Non zero Coriolis field in Ehlers' Frame Theory
• Again About Singularity Crossing In Gravitation And Cosmology
• Towards physical cosmology: geometrical interpretation of Dark Energy, Dark Matter and Inflation without fundamental sources
• Dynamics of hyperbolically symmetric fluids