Redshift-space density versus real-space velocity comparison

Abstract

I propose to compare the redshift-space density field directly to the REAL-SPACE velocity field. Such a comparison possesses all of the advantages of the conventional redshift-space analyses, while at the same time it is free of their disadvantages. In particular, the model-dependent reconstruction of the density field in real space is unnecessary, and so is the reconstruction of the velocity field in redshift space. The redshift-space velocity field can be reconstructed only at the linear order, because only at this order it is irrotational. Unlike the conventional redshift-space density--velocity comparisons, the comparison proposed here does not have to be restricted to the linear regime. Nonlinear effects can then be used to break the Omega-bias degeneracy plaguing the analyses based on the linear theory. I present a degeneracy-breaking method for the case of nonlinear but local bias.

4 pages, no figures, uses paspconf.sty; to appear in the proceedings of the Cosmic Flows Workshop, Victoria, Canada, July 1999, ed. S. Courteau, M. Strauss & J. Willick, ASP series. For a more detailed discussion of this problem, see astro-ph/9908246