Enhanced peculiar velocities in brane-induced gravity

The mounting evidence for anomalously large peculiar velocities in our Universe presents a challenge for the Lambda CDM paradigm. The recent estimates of the large-scale bulk flow by Watkins et al. are inconsistent at the nearly 3 sigma level with Lambda CDM predictions. Meanwhile, Lee and Komatsu have recently estimated that the occurrence of high-velocity merging systems such as the bullet cluster (1E0657-57) is unlikely at a 6.5-5.8 sigma level, with an estimated probability between 3.3 x 10(-11) and 3.6 x 10(-9) in Lambda CDM cosmology. We show that these anomalies are alleviated in a broad class of infrared-modifed gravity theories, called brane-induced gravity, in which gravity becomes higher-dimensional at ultralarge distances. These theories include additional scalar forces that enhance gravitational attraction and therefore speed up structure formation at late times and on sufficiently large scales. The peculiar velocities are enhanced by 24-34% compared to standard gravity, with the maximal enhancement nearly consistent at the 2 sigma level with bulk flow observations. The occurrence of the bullet cluster in these theories is approximate to 10(4) times more probable than in Lambda CDM cosmology.