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 $M\sim 10^{15}M_\odot$ together with parameters $α\sim 9.11$ and $μ\sim 0.196~{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ provides a successful description of cluster dynamics without particle dark matter. We extrapolate this fit to the separation range $30$ to $230~{\rm Mpc}$, relevant for the pairwise kSZ analysis. Since the Yukawa transition length $μ^{-1}\simeq 5.1~{\rm Mpc}$ 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.