Limit on graviton mass from galaxy cluster Abell 1689

Abstract

To date, the only limit on graviton mass using galaxy clusters was obtained by Goldhaber and Nieto in 1974, using the fact that the orbits of galaxy clusters are bound and closed, and extend up to 580 kpc. From positing that only a Newtonian potential gives rise to such stable bound orbits, a limit on the graviton mass mg<1.1×10−29eV was obtained [1]. Recently, it has been shown that one can obtain closed bound orbits for Yukawa potential [2], thus invalidating the main ansatz used in Ref. [1] to obtain the graviton mass bound. In order to obtain a revised estimate using galaxy clusters, we use dynamical mass models of the Abell 1689 (A1689) galaxy cluster to check their compatibility with a Yukawa gravitational potential. We use the mass models for the gas, dark matter, and galaxies for A1689 from Refs. [3,4], who used this cluster to test various alternate gravity theories, which dispense with the need for dark matter. We quantify the deviations in the acceleration profile using these mass models assuming a Yukawa potential and that obtained assuming a Newtonian potential by calculating the χ2 residuals between the two profiles. Our estimated bound on the graviton mass (mg) is thereby given by, mg<1.37×10−29eV or in terms of the graviton Compton wavelength of, λg>9.1×1019km at 90% confidence level.