Bullet Cluster Analysis in TPST and TGM: An Elastic-Spacetime Alternative to Dark Matter

The Bullet Cluster (1E 0657–56) is widely presented as decisive evidence for particle dark matter because the gravitational lensing peaks appear offset from the baryonic X-ray gas.In this work, we provide an alternative explanation using the Tareq Planck Spacetime Theory (TPST) and the Tareq Gravity Model (TGM).TPST models spacetime as an elastic Planck-scale lattice, and TGM represents its macroscopic scalar-gravity limit. During a high-velocity cluster collision, baryonic gas undergoes collisional drag, while galaxies and the elastic curvature field propagate nearly collisionlessly.As a result, the gravitational lensing peaks trace the elastic curvature field rather than the slowed X-ray plasma. This naturally reproduces the observed separation between gas and lensing peaks without requiring any exotic dark matter particles.The paper presents the TPST/TGM field equations, the elastic curvature interpretation, a description of cluster-scale collision dynamics, and testable predictions that distinguish this framework from the standard ΛCDM model. Email: [email protected]