STVG-MOG Cluster Dynamics and the Cosmological $1/r^2$ Force Law from Pairwise kSZ Data
Abstract
We investigate whether Scalar-Tensor-Vector Gravity in its weak-field modified gravity form can account for the cluster-scale inverse-square force law inferred from recent kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements of cluster pairwise motions. The starting point is the X-COP cluster fit of STVG-MOG, for which a representative baryonic cluster mass together with parameters and provides a successful description of cluster dynamics without particle dark matter. We extrapolate this fit to the separation range to , relevant for the pairwise kSZ analysis. Since the Yukawa transition length is much smaller than these separations, the STVG-MOG acceleration law reduces to an effective inverse-square form. This explains why the theory can satisfy the observed Newtonian behavior while remaining distinct from MOND-like long-distance modifications. We derive the corresponding pairwise velocity curve and show that, after fitting a single overall kSZ amplitude, the extrapolated STVG-MOG prediction reproduces the measured trend of the pairwise kSZ data. The analysis shows that the X-COP cluster fit and the cosmological-scale kSZ force-law result are mutually consistent within STVG-MOG.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.23440,
title = {STVG-MOG Cluster Dynamics and the Cosmological $1/r^2$ Force Law from Pairwise kSZ Data},
author = {John W. Moffat},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.23440},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
7 pages, 2 figures