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Forty years ago, Weizmann-Institute professor Mordehai Milgrom published a series of three articles in The Astrophysical Journal in which he proposed that the dark matter phenomenon is not due to unknown particles, but to a departure from the known laws of dynamics when the acceleration is about eleven orders of magnitude smaller than that on Earth’s surface (Milgrom 1983). Only one year later, in 1984, Jacob Bekenstein and Mordehai Milgrom developed this Modified Newtonian Dynamics (or Milgromian Dynamics, MOND) into a non-relativistic Lagrangian theory (Bekenstein & Milgrom 1984). During the ensuing decades, MOND has developed into a multifaceted paradigm that includes several non-relativistic and relativistic theory proposals, as well as possible connections with quantum gravity theories. Most remarkably, MOND has successfully made many striking and unique a priori predictions.

The MOND 40 conference commemorated the last 40 years of this modern gravitational paradigm, of its predictive successes as well as its outstanding challenges, and looked to the road ahead.

Topics of the conference included:

• Observational tests of MOND in galaxies of all types, including our own Milky Way
• Observational tests of MOND in galaxy clusters and galaxy groups, including our own Local Group
• Numerical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution in MOND
• Relativistic extensions of MOND, cosmology, and the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Foundations of MOND and links with quantum physics
• Philosophical and sociological aspects of MOND

In total 39 talks at the conference were published by the Archive Trust for Research.