MOND and the dynamics of NGC 628

Mordehai Milgrom

Published 2018-02-14Version 1

Aniyan et al. (2018) have recently published direct measurements of the baryonic mass distribution and the rotation curve of the almost-face-on disc galaxy NGC 628. While its very low inclination makes this galaxy anything but ideal for rotation-curve analysis, these new results, taken at face value, have interesting ramifications for MOND. The methods employed afford a direct determination of the stellar mass in the disc, which, in turn, affords a parameter-free MOND prediction of the rotation curve, which I show. In comparison, the dark-matter fits that Aniyan et al. present have two free parameters. To boot, these results further negate an earlier claim deleterious to MOND. It is that stellar $M/L$ ratios deduced from vertical velocity dispersions in disc galaxies are rather lower than what is required by MOND fits to rotation curves. Specifically, it was claimed that even high-surface-density discs are, by and large, sub maximal; viz., that they show substantial mass discrepancies near their center. This is contrary to the prediction of MOND that in such high-acceleration regions only small discrepancies should appear, if any to speak of. Such claims of low $M/L$ values have been rebutted before, and the fallacy that may have led to them pointed out. The new results strongly buttress these rebuttals.