How Unusual is the Locally Quiet Hubble Flow?

Abstract

The local galaxy distribution offers an interesting constraint to cosmological models of structure formation. The galaxies are distributed in a long, filamentary structure, presumably the result of large amplitude gravitational instability, yet the local velocity field is cold. In particular, there are no blueshifted galaxies within 5h^-1 Mpc except those within the Local Group radius of 1h^-1 Mpc. Using numerical simulations we demonstrate that such a situation is extremely rare for an observer in Omega=1 CDM models, but is not uncommon in mixed dark matter (MDM) models that include massive neutrinos.

9 pages including 6 figures, uuencoded compressed PostScript, CfPA93-TH-33