Constraining theories of gravity by fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies

Abstract

We show that fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies can be used to obtain observational constraints on metric theories of gravity. Being it connected to global properties of ellipticals, it can fix parameters of modified gravity. Specifically, we use fundamental plane to constrain modified theories of gravity with Yukawa-like corrections which commonly emerge in the post-Newtonian limit. After giving examples on how these corrections are derived, we first analyze the velocity distribution of elliptical galaxies comparing theoretical results of modified gravity with Yukawa-like corrections with astronomical data. According to these results, it is possible to constrain the parameters of the corrections discriminating among classes of models compatible with astronomical observations. We conclude that fundamental plane can be used as a standard tool to probe different theories of gravity in the weak field limit.