Comment on "The Real Problem with MOND" by Scott Dodelson, arXiv:1112.1320

TL;DR

This paper critiques the use of baryonic oscillations as a test for cosmological theories, emphasizing the importance of the matter power spectrum slope and defending alternative modified gravity models like MOG.

Contribution

It clarifies the impact of statistical window functions on baryonic oscillation detection and advocates for broader evaluation criteria beyond oscillations.

Findings

Baryonic oscillations are suppressed by statistical window functions.

The slope of the matter power spectrum is a more reliable indicator.

Modified gravity theories like MOG better fit cosmological data.

Abstract

We comment on arXiv:1112.1320 and point out that baryonic oscillations of the matter power spectrum, while predicted by theories that do not incorporate collisionless cold dark matter, are strongly suppressed by the statistical window function that is used to process finite-sized galaxy samples. We assert that with present-day data sets, the slope of the matter power spectrum is a much stronger indicator of a theory's validity. We also argue that MOND should not be used as a strawman theory as it is not in general representative of modified gravity theories; some theories, notably our scalar-vector-tensor MOdified Gravity (MOG), offer much more successful predictions of cosmological observations.