Abstract: Peculiar motions of galaxies are our only direct probe of the large scale distribution of dark matter. Currently the peculiar motions of a few thousand galaxies are available from distance indicator measurements(e.g. Tully-isher data). Despite numerous difficulties, those measurements provide important constraints on the cosmological model and the way galaxies trace the dark matter.
In particular the gravitational force field computed from the distribution of galaxies in the Two Mass Redshift Survey is well aligned with the peculiar motions of galaxies. Also the bulk flow estimated from the peculiar motions is found consistent with predictions of the standard LCDM model. The talk will discuss several new/old methods for extracting the cosmological peculiar velocity field independent of traditional distant indicators. Those method are mainly relevant for large surveys of galaxies such as EUCLID.
Speaker's homepage: http://physics.technion.ac.il/~adi/