Empirical Relationship Between Dark Matter and Baryon Profiles for Solving the Core-Cusp and Diversity Problems of Galaxies

Abstract

The rotation velocity profiles of galaxies (rotation curves) remain unexpectedly flat at large distances, where visible matter alone should make the rotation velocity decrease with radius. To explain this missing gravity, conventional frameworks assume unseen mass or alternative gravitational effects. While the dark matter hypothesis has become the standard paradigm, this framework faces persistent small-scale challenges, such as the core-cusp and diversity problems, and struggles to explain the observed correlation between dark matter and baryons, as evidenced by the Radial Acceleration Relation and the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation. Here, we introduce a simple empirical law for the dark matter in a single galaxy, stating that the dark matter energy density $ρ_{\mathrm{DM}}$ is related to the baryonic gravitational potential $U_b$ and the total baryonic mass of the galaxy $M_b$ as $ρ_{\mathrm{DM}} = K M_b^{-3/2} (U_b/c^2)^2$. When applied to 122 galaxies from the SPARC database with a single fitting parameter $K$, this empirical equation reproduces both the diverse inner structures and outer flat regions of the observed rotation curves, resolving the core-cusp and diversity problems. In each galaxy, the observed velocity data for various distances were well fitted, with the minimum $χ^2/\mathrm{dof}$ value around unity, by the rotation curve calculated from this empirical equation. The fitted $K$ values for the 122 galaxies were concentrated within a narrow range, and the minimum $χ^2/\mathrm{dof}$ values were significantly reduced for galaxies with specific stellar mass-to-light ratio data given by the THINGS survey. These results demonstrate the validity of the empirical law. The success of the empirical law may suggest the existence of new fields interacting with baryons.