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No Need for Dark Matter in Galaxies?

Unhappily, there has been a maelstrom of problems for dark matter theories over the last few years and many serious difficulties still have no resolution in sight. This article reviews the evidence for dark matter in galaxies. The haloes built up by hierarchical merging in dark matter cosmogonies are cusped and dominated by dark matter at the center. Evidence from the microlensing optical depth towards Baade's Window and from dynamical modelling of the Galactic bar already suggests that the Galactic halo is not cusped. Similarly, evidence from the stability of unbarred disk galaxies, as well as the survival of fast bars in barred galaxies, suggests that the this result holds good more generally. Judged on the data from galactic scales alone, the case for dark matter is weak and non-standard theories of gravity provide a better description. Of course, non-standard theories of gravity have their own problems, but not on galactic scales.