Clusters of galaxies with modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND)

Abstract

X-ray emitting clusters of galaxies are considered in the context of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). I show that self-gravitating isothermal gas spheres are not good representations of rich clusters with respect to the radial gas density distribution as indicated by the X-ray surface brightness. Pure gas spheres with a density distribution described by a ``beta'' model, as observed, also fail because, with MOND, these objects are far from isothermal. These problems may be resolved by adding an additional dark mass component in the central regions; a constant density sphere contained within two core radii and having a total mass of one to two times that in the gas. With this additional component, the observed luminosity-temperature relation for clusters of galaxies is reproduced. When the observed X-ray surface brightness distribution in actual clusters is modeled by such a two-component structure, the typical mass discrepancy is three to four times smaller than with Newtonian dynamics. Thus while MOND significantly reduces the mass of the dark component in clusters it does not remove it completely. I speculate on the nature of the dark component and argue that this is not a fundamental problem for MOND.