Interpreting New Data on Large Scale Bulk Flows

Abstract

We study the implications of a recent estimate of the bulk flow of a sample of galaxies containing supernovae type Ia by Riess, Press, and Kirshner. We find that their results are quite consistent with power spectra from several currently popular models of structure formation, but that the sample is as yet too sparse to put significant constraints on the power spectrum. We compare this new result with that of Lauer and Postman, with which there is apparent disagreement. We find that for the power spectra we consider, the difference in window functions between the two samples used for the measurements results in a low level of expected correlation between the estimated bulk flows. We calculate a ${\chi }^2$ for the two measurements taken together and find that their lack of agreement tends to disfavor spectra with excessive power on large scales, but not at a level sufficient to rule them out. A sample consisting of other SN type Ia's found in the Asiago catalog is used to study how the sensitivity of the method used by RPK will improve with increasing sample size. We conclude that the local group motion should be able to be determined with a sample of $\sim 100$ SN Ia light curve shapes.

13 pages, 2 figures included in a self-unpacking uudecoded gzipped postscript file. We changed some of the power spectra analyzed and expanded the discussion. The postscript file is available at http://pupgga.princeton.edu/disk20/anonymous/feldman/bflows.ps

References in corpus (8)

• Power Spectrum Analysis of Three-Dimensional Redshift Surveys
• Using SN Ia Light Curve Shapes to Measure The Hubble Constant
• PAIRWISE VELOCITIES OF GALAXIES IN THE CFA AND SSRS2 REDSHIFT SURVEYS
• Determining the Motion of the Local Group Using SN Ia Light Curve Shapes
• Likelihood Analysis of Large-Scale Flows
• Can Standard Cosmological Models Explain the Observed Abell Cluster Bulk Flow?
• Theoretical Expectations for Bulk Flows in Large Scale Surveys
• Power Spectrum Independent Constraints on Cosmological Models

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• The Case for an Accelerating Universe from Supernovae
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• Seeking the Local Convergence Depth. V. Tully-Fisher Peculiar Velocities for 52 Abell Clusters
• An Unbiased Estimator of Peculiar Velocity with Gaussian Distributed Errors for Precision Cosmology
• Current Status Of Velocity Field Surveys: A Consistency Check
• Large-scale Cosmic Flows from Cosmicflows-2 Catalog
• The Mount Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search
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• Power Spectrum Shape from Peculiar Velocity Data
• The Environmental Dependence of Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Implications for Large-Scale Flows
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• Testing the minimum variance method for estimating large-scale velocity moments
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• Optimal Moments for the Analysis of Peculiar Velocity Surveys II: Testing
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• The Cosmic Mach Number: Comparison from Observations, Numerical Simulations and Nonlinear Predictions