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Quantised Inertia is a controversial fringe theory that is claimed to be an alternative explanation of, for example, galactic motion.

The consensus explanation for why the outer stars in galaxies rotate far faster than they should given the observable amount of visible matter in the galaxies is the existence of dark matter (which has not been directly observed).

A more "mainstream" alternative explanation for galaxy rotation is Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MoND). This has been discussed here before (for example here).

But there are few general articles explaining how successful each theory is at explaining galaxy rotation or, perhaps more importantly, what other cosmological observations could provide good tests that would distinguish between current mainstream theories and the fringe alternatives.

So what are the key cosmological observations that best test conventional ideas (especially dark matter) compared to their alternatives? And how good are the fringe theories (especially MoND and Quantised Inertia) at fitting all these key observations?

matt_black
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  • This is a bit of a broad question, and I hope you get a good answer, but in the meantime I want to point out that galaxy rotation curves are just one of many independent pieces of cosmological evidence. Asking for a theory that fits "galaxy rotation curves and other stuff" is like asking for a theory of evolution that fits "lemurs and other animals". Less mainstream approaches are less mainstream precisely because they either get everything else disastrously wrong, or are not even precisely defined enough to give a definite answer. – knzhou Jan 16 '20 at 18:35
  • The reason that these less mainstream approaches get so much attention is because galaxy rotation curves get by far the most popular attention -- but that is only because they are the easiest thing to explain to laypeople. – knzhou Jan 16 '20 at 18:36
  • @knzhou Which is why it would be good to summarise the other key pieces of evidence the non-mainstream theories find harder to explain. We can't judge whether weird theories are any good if the only evidence we see is the evidence their advocates like. – matt_black Jan 17 '20 at 00:51

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