Empirical Discovery of a Detection Factor Enhancing Rotation Curve Fits Across Halo Models
- Publicada
- Servidor
- Preprints.org
- DOI
- 10.20944/preprints202509.2558.v1
We present the empirical discovery of a detection factor, a multiplicative correction that systematically improves the fit quality of galactic rotation curves. Using the SPARC dataset [1], we evaluate this factor across both empirical and canonical model families. Within the empirical class, we test two complementary fourth-order formulations: DE4-poly, a direct polynomial basis, and DE4-ortho, an orthogonalized variant optimized for numerical stability. For comparison, we also implement the factor within the widely used Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) [3] and Burkert [4] halo profiles. Across all models, the detection factor significantly enhances median and mean R² values, often raising them above the commonly used 0.8 threshold for high-quality fits. The improvements are most pronounced for the NFW and Burkert families, where the detection factor mitigates long-standing deficits relative to empirical baselines. Importantly, the gains observed in DE4-poly and DE4-ortho demonstrate that the detection factor is not specific to one parameterization, but instead represents a universal correction applicable across distinct modeling frameworks.