Modified Gravity Theory Passes a Critical Test | Quanta Magazine
The would-be revolutionaries seek an alternative cosmic recipe. In place of dark matter, they substitute a subtly modified force of gravity. But attempts to translate their rough idea into precise mathematical language have always run afoul of at least one key observation. Some formulations get galaxies right, some get the contortion of light rays right, but none have pierced dark matter s most bulletproof piece of evidence: precise maps of ancient light, known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A theory must do really well to agree with this data, said Ruth Durrer, a cosmologist at the University of Geneva. This is the bottleneck.
Now, two theorists say they ve finally squeezed an alternative theory of gravity past that obstacle. Their work, which was posted online in late June and has not yet passed peer review, uses a tweaked version of Einstein s theory of gravity to reproduce an iconic map of the early universe, a feat that even some rebels feared to be impossible. For 15 years we ve just been dead in the water, said Stacy McGaugh, an astronomer at Case Western Reserve University and a longtime advocate for modified-gravity theories who was not involved in the research. It s a huge leap forward.
Others agree that the model s preliminary results appear promising. It s a bit baroque, but since nothing else has worked so far, I m still impressed that it seems to work, Durrer said.