Dynamical friction in the quasi-linear formulation of MOND

Pierfrancesco Di Cintio, Federico Re, Caterina Chiari

Published 2024-04-29Version 1

Aims. We explore the dynamical friction on a test mass in gravitational systems in the Quasi linear formulation of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (QuMOND). Methods. Exploiting the quasi linearity of QuMOND we derive a simple expression for the dynamical friction in akin to its Newtonian counterpart in the standard Chandrasekhar derivation. Moreover, adopting a mean field approach based on the Liouville equation we obtain a more rigorous (though in integral form) dynamical friction formula that can be evaluated numerically for a given choice of the QuMOND interpolation function. Results. Consistently with previous work, we observe that dynamical friction is stronger in MOND with respect to a baryon only Newtonian system with the same mass distribution. This amounts to a correction of the Coulomb logarithmic factor via extra terms proportional to the MOND radius of the system. Moreover, with the aid of simple numerical experiments we confirm our theoretical predictions and those of previous work on MOND.