Cluster Merger Lensing from Weyl and Ricci Curvature Co-evolution

We propose that the gravitational lensing–gas offsets observed in merging galaxy clusters follow from the independent evolution of the Ricci and Weyl components of spacetime curvature, a structural feature of general relativity. The Weyl tensor (the free gravitational field) is collisionless by construction and separates from collisional gas during a cluster merger -- the same phenomenological prediction as collisionless dark matter, but arising from spacetime geometry rather than a new particle species. The predicted offset d = v × t, with one geometric variable (viewing angle) per system, is consistent with two post-collision mergers (the Bullet Cluster and the Musket Ball Cluster) using measured collision parameters. The anomalous "dark core" in Abell 520, where the lensing peak coincides with the gas, is explained as a geometric projection of spectroscopically confirmed line-of-sight structure onto the cluster center, with a mass budget that closes conditionally. Four observational tests are proposed that could distinguish the geometric interpretation from the standard particle dark matter explanation. A simplified numerical simulation demonstrates that initial Weyl curvature is retained through gravitational collapse, and the Raychaudhuri equation is shown to reduce the damping in the Weyl evolution equations as structures form. Whether accumulated Weyl curvature is quantitatively sufficient to account for the observed lensing masses remains an open question requiring a full numerical solution of the 1+3 covariant evolution equations.