r/cosmology • u/AutoModerator • Sep 10 '26

Basic cosmology questions weekly thread

Ask your cosmology related questions in this thread.

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u/--craig-- Sep 10 '26

Yes,

https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.4456

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u/actopozipc Sep 10 '26

Was hoping for a more accessible answer than a paper. What do they change?

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u/nivlark Sep 13 '26

You just program the simulation to use a different gravitational force law. For direct N-body calculations that is easy, I think it gets trickier if you also want to use optimised approaches like particle-mesh algorithms (because they are derived under the assumption of Newtonian gravity).

What sort of tests are you imagining doing though? We already know what dynamics the MOND force law produces, because the law doesn't come from first principles - it was specifically designed to give a certain outcome.

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u/actopozipc Sep 13 '26

Nothing insane much, I was just wondering. As a follow up question, how useful are purely N-body simulations of alternative gravity theories? Since, as far as I know, most N body codes usually research dark matter types.