Putting Yukawa-Like Modified Gravity (MOG) on the Test in the Solar System

Abstract

We deal with a Yukawa-like long-range modified model of gravity (MOG) which recently allowed to successfully accommodate many astrophysical and cosmological features without resorting to dark matter. On Solar System scales, MOG predicts anomalous retrograde secular precessions of the planetary longitudes of the perihelia ϖ . Their existence has been put on the test here by taking the ratios of the observationally estimated Pitjeva's corrections to the standard Newtonian/ Einsteinian perihelion precessions for different pairs of planets. It turns out that MOG, in the present form which turned out to be phenomenologically successful on astrophysical scales, is ruled out at more than 3 σ level in the Solar System. If and when other teams of astronomers will independently estimate their own corrections to the usual precessions of the perihelia, it will be possible to repeat such a test.