FINDING THE ACCELERATION PARAMETER IN MODIFIED NEWTONIAN DYNAMICS WITH ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES

MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is an alternative to the dark matter paradigm. MOND asserts that when the magnitude of acceleration is smaller than the acceleration parameter a0, the response of the system to gravity is stronger (larger acceleration) than the one given by Newtonian dynamics. The current value of a0 is obtained mostly by observations of spiral galaxies (rotation curves and the Tully-Fisher relation). We attempt to estimate a0 from the dynamics of elliptical galaxies. We seek elliptical galaxies that act as the lens of gravitational lensing systems and have velocity dispersion data available. We analysed 65 Einstein rings from the Sloan Len ACS survey (SLACS). The mass estimates from gravitation lensing and velocity dispersion agree well with each other, and are consistent with the estimates from population synthesis with a Salpeter IMF. The value of a0 obtained from this analysis agrees with the current value.