Comparison of the SFI peculiar velocities with the IRAS 1.2-Jy gravity field

We present a comparison between the peculiar velocity fields measured from a recently completed l -band Tully–Fisher survey of field spirals (SFI) and that derived from the IRAS 1.2-Jy redshift survey galaxy distribution. The analysis is based on the expansion of these data in redshift space using smooth orthonormal functions, and is performed using low- and high-resolution expansions, with an effective smoothing scale which increases almost linearly with redshift. The effective smoothing scales at 3000 km s⁻¹ are 1500 and 1000 km s⁻¹ for the low- and high-resolution filters. The agreement between the high- and low-resolution SFI velocity maps is excellent. The general features in the filtered SFI and IRAS velocity fields agree remarkably well within 6000 km s⁻¹. This good agreement between the fields allows us to determine the parameter β = Ω^0.6 / b , where Ω is the cosmological density parameter, and b is the linear biasing factor. From a likelihood analysis on the SFI and IRAS modes we find that β = 0.6 ± 0.1, independently of the resolution of the modal expansion. For this value of β, the residual fields for the two filters show no systematic variations within 6000 km s⁻¹. Most remarkable is the lack of any coherent, redshift-dependent dipole flow in the residual field.     

Redshift-space distortions in the PSCz galaxy catalogue

We apply a spherical harmonic analysis to the Point Source Redshift Survey (PSC z ), to compute the real-space galaxy power spectrum and the degree of redshift distortion caused by peculiar velocities. We employ new parameter eigenvector and hierarchical data compression techniques, allowing a much larger number of harmonic modes to be included, and correspondingly smaller error bars. Using 4644 harmonic modes, compressed to 2278, we find that the IRAS redshift-space distortion parameter is     and the amplitude of galaxy clustering on a scale of     is     . Combining these we find the amplitude of mass perturbations is     . While this is compatible with results from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), with a small degree of tilt, it disagrees with the amplitude of matter perturbations estimated from the abundance of clusters by a factor of 2, independent of cosmology. A preliminary model fitting analysis combining the CMB with either the PSC z or cluster abundances shows that the cosmological matter density parameter     , and the IRAS bias parameter     . However, the cluster abundances suggest that     and     , while the PSC z requires     and     . Given the physics of galaxy formation is poorly constrained, we conclude that IRAS galaxies and mass are only partially correlated.     

Predicting the peculiar velocities of nearby PSCz galaxies using the Least Action Principle

We use the Least Action Principle to predict the peculiar velocities of PSC z galaxies inside cz =2000 km s⁻¹. Linear theory is used to account for tidal effects to cz =15 000 km s⁻¹, and we iterate galaxy positions to account for redshift distortions. As the Least Action Principle is valid beyond linear theory, we can predict reliable peculiar velocities even for very nearby galaxies (i.e., cz ≤500 km s⁻¹). These predicted peculiar velocities are then compared with the observed velocities of 12 galaxies with Cepheid distances. The combination of the PSC z galaxy survey (with its large sky coverage and uniform selection) with the accurate Cepheid distances makes this comparison relatively free from systematic effects. We find that galaxies are good tracers of the mass, even at small (≤10  h ⁻¹ Mpc) scales; under the assumption of no biasing, 0.25≤ β ≤0.75 (at 90 per cent confidence). We use the reliable predicted peculiar velocities to estimate the Hubble constant H ₀ from the local volume without 'stepping up' the distance ladder, finding a confidence range of 65–75 km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ (at 90 per cent confidence).     

Mass selection bias in galaxy cluster peculiar velocities from the kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect

Upcoming surveys for galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect are potentially sensitive enough to create a peculiar velocity catalogue. The statistics of these peculiar velocities are sensitive to cosmological parameters. We develop a method to explore parameter space using N -body simulations in order to quantify dark matter halo velocity statistics which will be useful for cluster peculiar velocity observations. We show that mass selection bias from a kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich velocity catalogue forecasts rms peculiar velocities with a much more complicated  Ω_m  dependency than suggested by linear perturbation theory. In addition, we show that both two-point functions for velocities disagree with linear theory predictions out to  ∼40  h ⁻¹ Mpc  separations. A pedagogical appendix is included developing linear theory notation with respect to the two-point peculiar velocities functions.     

The real-space power spectrum of the PSCz survey from 0.01 to 300 h Mpc−1

We report a measurement of the real-space (not redshift-space) power spectrum of galaxies over four and a half decades of wavenumber, 0.01 to 300  h  Mpc⁻¹, from the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift Survey (PSC z ). Since estimates of power are highly correlated in the non-linear regime, we also report results for the pre-whitened power spectrum, which is less correlated. The inferred bias between optically selected APM and IRAS -selected PSC z galaxies is about 1.15 at linear scales ≲0.3  h  Mpc⁻¹, increasing to about 1.4 at non-linear scales ≳1  h  Mpc⁻¹. The non-linear power spectrum of PSC z shows a near power-law behaviour to the smallest scales measured, with possible mild upward curvature in the broad vicinity of   k ∼2  h  Mpc⁻¹  . Contrary to the prediction of unbiased dark matter models, there is no prominent inflection at the linear to non-linear transition scale, and no turnover at the transition to the virialized regime. The non-linear power spectrum of PSC z requires scale-dependent bias: all Dark Matter models without scale-dependent bias are ruled out with high confidence.     

A new method of measuring the cluster peculiar velocity power spectrum

We propose to use spatial correlations of the kinetic Sunyaev–Zeldovich (KSZ) flux as an estimator of the peculiar velocity power spectrum. In contrast with conventional techniques, our new method does not require measurements of the thermal SZ signal or the X-ray temperature. Moreover, this method has the special advantage that the expected systematic errors are always subdominant to statistical errors on all scales and redshifts of interest. We show that future large sky coverage KSZ surveys may allow a peculiar velocity power spectrum estimates of an accuracy reaching ∼10 per cent.     

Cosmological implications of the PSCz PDF and its moments

We compare the probability density function (PDF) and its low-order moments (variance and skewness) of the smoothed IRAS Point Source Catalogue Redshift Survey (PSC z ) galaxy density field and of the corresponding simulated PSC z look-alikes, generated from N -body simulations of six different dark matter models: four structure-normalized with     and     , one COBE -normalized, and the old standard cold dark matter model. The galaxy distributions are smoothed with a Gaussian window at three different smoothing scales,     , 10 and 15  h ⁻¹ Mpc. We find that the simulation PSC z look-alike PDFs are sensitive only to the normalization of the power spectrum, probably owing to the shape similarity of the simulated galaxy power spectrum on the relevant scales. We find that the only models that are consistent, at a high significance level, with the observed PSC z PDF are models with a relatively low power spectrum normalization     . From the phenomenologically derived σ ₈–moments relation, fitted from the simulation data, we find that the PSC z moments suggest     .     

Recovering the initial conditions of our local Universe from NOG and PSCz catalogues

We apply the ztrace algorithm to the optical NOG and infrared PSC z galaxy catalogues to reconstruct the pattern of primordial fluctuations that have generated our local Universe. We check that the density fields traced by the two catalogues are well correlated, and consistent with a linear relation [either in δ or in  log (1 +δ)  ] with relative bias (of NOG with respect to PSC z )   b _rel= 1.1 ± 0.1  . The relative bias relation is used to fill the optical zone of avoidance at  | b | < 20°  using the PSC z galaxy density field.
We perform extensive testing on simulated galaxy catalogues to optimize the reconstruction. The quality of the reconstruction is predicted to be good at large scales, up to a limiting wavenumber   k _lim≃ 0.4 h Mpc⁻¹  beyond which all information is lost. We find that the improvement arising from the denser sampling of the optical catalogue is compensated by the uncertainties connected to the larger zone of avoidance.
The initial conditions reconstructed from the NOG catalogue are found (analogously to those from the PSC z ) to be consistent with a Gaussian paradigm. We use the reconstructions to produce sets of initial conditions ready to be used for constrained simulations of our local Universe.     

The dark matter environment of the Abell 901/902 supercluster: a weak lensing analysis of the HST STAGES survey

We present a high-resolution dark matter reconstruction of the   z = 0.165  Abell 901/902 supercluster from a weak lensing analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope STAGES survey. We detect the four main structures of the supercluster at high significance, resolving substructure within and between the clusters. We find that the distribution of dark matter is well traced by the cluster galaxies, with the brightest cluster galaxies marking out the strongest peaks in the dark matter distribution. We also find a significant extension of the dark matter distribution of Abell 901a in the direction of an infalling X-ray group Abell 901α. We present mass, mass-to-light and mass-to-stellar mass ratio measurements of the structures and substructures that we detect. We find no evidence for variation of the mass-to-light and mass-to-stellar mass ratio between the different clusters. We compare our space-based lensing analysis with an earlier ground-based lensing analysis of the supercluster to demonstrate the importance of space-based imaging for future weak lensing dark matter 'observations'.     

Peaks in the cosmological density field: sensitivity to initial power spectrum, redshift distortions and galaxy halo occupation

We investigate the number density of maxima in the cosmological galaxy density field smoothed with a filter as a probe of clustering. In previous work it has been shown that this statistic is closely related to the slope of the linear power spectrum, even when the directly measured power spectrum is non-linear. In the present paper we investigate the sensitivity of the peak number density to various models with differing power spectra, including rolling index models, cosmologies with massive neutrinos and different baryon densities. We find that rolling index models which have given an improved fit to CMB/LSS (cosmic microwave background/large scale structure) data yield a ∼10 per cent difference in peak density compared to the scale invariant case. Models with 0.3 eV neutrinos have effects of similar magnitude and it should be possible to constrain them with data from current galaxy redshift surveys. Baryon oscillations in the power spectrum also give rise to distinctive features in the peak density. These are preserved without modification when measured from the peak density in fully non-linear N -body simulations. Using the simulations, we also investigate how the peak density is modified in the presence of redshift distortions. Redshift distortions cause a suppression of the number of peaks, largely due to fingers of God overlapping in redshift space. We find that this effect can be modelled by using a modification of the input power spectrum. We also study the results when the simulation density field is traced by galaxies obtained by populating haloes with a halo occupation distribution consistent with observations. The peak number density is consistent with that in the dark matter for filter scales  >4  h ⁻¹ Mpc  , for which we find good agreement with the linear theory predictions. In a companion paper we analyse data from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.