No evidence for Keplerian taper of far-out galactic rotation

We present a statistical analysis of the 175 SPARC galactic rotation curves to test the hypothesis of whether the Keplerian velocity tapering at large radii (v(r)∝ 1/√r) of the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) halo model agrees with observational data. The null hypothesis is Rubin's flat-rotation curve, v(r)=constant -such as can be obtained from a spherical, isothermal-like density profile, or alternatively with a very prolate halo-. To decide whether we adopt the null (Rubin behaviour) or alternative (NFW behaviour) hypothesis, we evaluate the derivative in each galaxy of $v(r)$ with its last data points. We conclude that the data is presently compatible with the null hypothesis -no taper off, no decline of $v(r)$ is seen.