Modified Newtonian Dynamics as an Alternative to Dark Matter

Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is an empirically motivated modification of Newtonian gravity or inertia suggested by Milgrom as an alternative to cosmic dark matter. The basic idea is that at accelerations below ao ≈ 10⁻⁸ cm/s² ≈ cHo/6 the effective gravitational attraction approaches , where gn is the usual Newtonian acceleration. This simple algorithm yields flat rotation curves for spiral galaxies and a mass-rotation velocity relation of the form M ∝ V⁴ that forms the basis for the observed luminosity–rotation velocity relation—the Tully-Fisher law. We review the phenomenological success of MOND on scales ranging from dwarf spheroidal galaxies to superclusters and demonstrate that the evidence for dark matter can be equally well interpreted as evidence for MOND. We discuss the possible physical basis for an acceleration-based modification of Newtonian dynamics as well as the extention of MOND to cosmology and structure formation.