Tensor–vector–scalar-modified gravity: from small scale to cosmology

Abstract

The impressive success of the standard cosmological model has suggested to many that its ingredients are all that one needs to explain galaxies and their systems. I summarize a number of known problems with this programme. They might signal the failure of standard gravity theory on galaxy scales. The requisite hints as to the alternative gravity theory may lie with the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) paradigm, which has proved to be an effective summary of galaxy phenomenology. A simple nonlinear modified gravity theory does justice to MOND at the non-relativistic level, but cannot be consistently promoted to relativistic status. The obstacles were first side-stepped with the formulation of tensor–vector–scalar theory (T e V e  S), a covariant-modified gravity theory. I review its structure, its MOND and Newtonian limits, and its performance in the face of galaxy phenomenology. I also summarize features of T e V e  S cosmology and describe the confrontation with data from strong and weak gravitational lensing.