Searching for the great attractor. [Cosmology]

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1988 · Astrophys. J.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/185312· OSTI ID:6534600

Bertschinger, E; Juszkiewicz, R

Several scenarios for the growth of cosmic structure are tested against recent observations of large-scale peculiar velocities with the velocity field being represented as a dipole flow, a spherical flow toward a great attractor, and a minimal cylindrical model proposed by Faber and Burstein (1988). It is shown that if the observationally derived flow models are correct, then all the theoretical scenarios have difficulties. For the standard Omega = 1 biased cold dark matter (CDM) scenario, earlier conclusions based on the dipole flow model that the CDM predictions fail by a large margin are confirmed. A drastic revision of the existing fits to the observational data would be required to save this scenario. The isocurvature baryon models (with Omega = 0.4) fare much better: they naturally lead to large-scale flows. However, these models have difficulty reproducing the observed velocity gradients. The cylindrical flow model constrains theories less than the spherical Great Attractor model does, illustrating the importance of extending present surveys to greater redshift. 29 references.

• Research Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA (USA); Princeton Univ., NJ (USA); Centrum Astronomiczne, Warsaw (Poland)
• OSTI ID: 6534600
• Journal Information: Astrophys. J.; (United States), Vol. 334
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COSMOLOGY
MASS DISTRIBUTION
BARYONS
CONSTRAINTS
DENSITY
GALAXY CLUSTERS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
STATISTICS
VELOCITY
DISTRIBUTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
MATHEMATICS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
640106* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmology