Replicating MOND In A Spin-Foam Model

Spin-foam is a quantum gravity approach that quantizes space-time, rather than treating gravity as a separate force with a carrier boson comparable to a photon or a gluon.

We argue that effects of the quantum spin-connection foam, which describes quantum gravity according to the precanonical quantization of General Relativity, may already be observed in the form of the small cosmological constant and a modification of Newtonian dynamics at small accelerations, manifested in the flat rotation curves of galaxies. 

We obtain a modification of the Newtonian potential that takes into account the existence of a fundamental small acceleration scale, a∗ = 8πGℏϰ, where ϰ is a parameter with the dimensions of inverse spatial volume that appears on dimensional grounds. The connection between ϰ and the hadronic scale of the mass gap in the pure Yang-Mills sector of the Standard Model leads to an estimated value of a∗ compatible with the Milgromian acceleration scale in MOND. The connection between a*^2 and the cosmological constant leads to a realistic value of the latter. Milgromian MOND, together with a theoretically distinct interpolating function, is derived under the assumption that classical dynamics is modified by the mean-field acceleration calculated from the simplest solution of precanonical quantum gravity in the nonrelativistic approximation. 

We also indicate that the effects of Newtonian dynamics modified by the spin-connection foam may be observable in the Solar System and even in laboratory experiments.

Igor V. Kanatchikov, Valery A. Kholodnyi, "Effects of Quantum Spin-Connection Foam in the Solar System, Galaxies, and the Universe" arXiv:2608.12404 (August 11, 2026) (The Seventeenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting on Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics, and Relativistic Field Theories, Pescara 7-12 July 2024, edited by G. Vereshchagin and R. Ruffini, this https URL, October 2026).

Hadronic B Decay Anomalies

The anomaly of the day is an anomaly in a certain kind of B meson decay. I'm very skeptical and think it will go away and is probably due to poor modeling of the Standard Model prediction, but I'll note its existence in this post for further analysis.

The decays B→PP, where the pseudoscalar P is a π or K, have been studied under the assumption of flavour SU(3) symmetry [SU(3)F]. The global fit shows a 3.6σ discrepancy with the Standard Model (SM). 

Separate fits for ΔS=0 and ΔS=1 decays find parameter sets that differ by a factor of 10, suggesting 1000% SU(3)F breaking, significantly larger than the ∼ 30% breaking expected in the SM. This study has been extended to include final states with η and η′ mesons. The resulting global fit, once again under the assumption of SU(3)F symmetry, is worse, with a 4.1σ deviation from the SM. When theoretical constraints |C˜/T˜| = 0.2 or A˜ = 0 are imposed, the fits worsen, with the discrepancy approaching 5σ. These results hint at new-physics contributions to these decays.

Marianne Bouchard, David London, "Anomalies in Hadronic B Decays" arXiv:2608.11298 (August 11, 2026) (Contribution to the Proceedings of the XVI International Conference on Beauty, Charm, Hyperons in Hadronic Interactions (BEACH 2026), 7-12 June 2026, Firenze, Italy).

Another Alternative To Particle Dark Matter

A Covarying Coupling Constant theory performs similarly to, but not better than MOND. Both are much better at explaining galaxy rotation dynamics than a Cold Dark Matter theory using an NFW dark matter distribution (which is theoretically necessary for truly sterile dark matter particles).

The Covarying Coupling Constants (CCC) framework, developed to account for high-redshift JWST observations, contains a mechanism -- a covarying-constant effective mass field keyed to local density -- that modifies galactic dynamics without particle dark matter. 

We test it against the full Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves (SPARC) sample of 175 disc galaxies, extending an earlier study of a few objects. Working in an inverse formulation, in which each model predicts the baryonic rotation curve from the observed one, we compare CCC against Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and one- and two-parameter Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) haloes on identical footing, using the reduced χ2ν. We show that the published sharp density turn-off in the earlier study is unphysical and replace it with a smooth transition -- the density-space analogue of the MOND interpolating function, introducing no new parameter. One-parameter smooth-CCC then performs comparably to galaxy-by-galaxy fitted MOND (the lower χ(ν)^2 in 56 per cent of galaxies, mean χ(ν)^2 of 2.58 versus 2.65; the paired difference is not significant), while two-parameter NFW shows a substantially broader fit-quality distribution and a larger tail of poor or boundary-limited fits (mean χ(ν)^2≈7). The CCC turn-off density is not universal (scatter 0.82 dex) and correlates with galaxy size, qualitatively consistent with a spherical reconstruction applied to flattened disc systems. Recast as an acceleration, however, a(t) = V(flat)^2/R(t) has scatter 0.33 dex (on the 91-galaxy resolved subset) -- matching the MOND scale a0 (0.34 dex) -- and comparable magnitude of order 2×10^−10 m/s^2, with its size correlation removed. Though not designed for galactic dynamics, CCC describes rotation curves as well as galaxy-by-galaxy fitted MOND.

Rajendra P. Gupta, Nikolaos Samaras "Testing Covarying Coupling Constants (CCC) against the full SPARC rotation-curve sample: a like-for-like comparison with MOND and NFW" arXiv:2608.11575 (August 12, 2026).