Astrophysical Repulsion from Dark Energy

The manifestation of dark energy on cosmological scales is well known: gravitational repulsion which leads to the accelerating expansion of the universe. Perhaps surprisingly, there are potentially observable effects on galactic length scales as well.

The Dark Force: Astrophysical Repulsion from Dark Energy (http://arxiv.org/abs/1501.05952)

Chiu Man Ho, Stephen D. H. Hsu

Dark energy (i.e., a cosmological constant) leads, in the Newtonian approximation, to a repulsive force which grows linearly with distance. We discuss possible astrophysical effects of this "dark" force. For example, the dark force overcomes the gravitational attraction from an object (e.g., dwarf galaxy) of mass $10^7 M_\odot$ at a distance of $~ 23$ kpc. It seems possible that observable velocities of bound satellites (rotation curves) could be significantly affected, and therefore used to measure the dark energy density.