Does Gravity Rule the Universe?

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-93
Author(s):  
Donald S. Mathewson

AbstractThe initial results of a southern sky survey of the peculiar velocities of 1355 spiral galaxies by a group at Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories (MSSSO) are discussed against the background of past work in this area. The most important result is that the Great Attractor does not exist; rather, there is bulk flow relative to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) of amplitude 600 km s−1 and scale greater than 130 h−1 Mpc in the Supergalactic plane. This is generated by the assumption that the CMB dipole is Doppler induced by our Galaxy moving at 622 km s−1 relative to the CMB. This may be incorrect, in which case there is no bulk flow and the radiation dipole is cosmological in origin with important implications for the early Universe.

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham Loeb

AbstractIn the redshift range 100≲(1+z)≲137, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) had a temperature of 273–373 K (0–100°C), allowing early rocky planets (if any existed) to have liquid water chemistry on their surface and be habitable, irrespective of their distance from a star. In the standard ΛCDM cosmology, the first star-forming halos within our Hubble volume started collapsing at these redshifts, allowing the chemistry of life to possibly begin when the Universe was merely 10–17 million years old. The possibility of life starting when the average matter density was a million times bigger than it is today is not in agreement with the anthropic explanation for the low value of the cosmological constant.


2021 ◽  
Vol 504 (1) ◽  
pp. 1304-1319
Author(s):  
A Salehi ◽  
M Yarahmadi ◽  
S Fathi ◽  
Kazuharu Bamba

ABSTRACT We study the bulk flow of the local universe with Type Ia supernova data (a compilation of Union2 and Pantheon data) in the spatially flat homogeneous and isotropic space–time. In particular, we take the so-called QCDM models, which consist of cold dark matter (CDM) and a Q-component described by a scalar field with its self-interactions determined by an exponential potential. We use different cumulative redshift slices of the Union2 and Pantheon catalogues. A maximum-likelihood analysis of peculiar velocities confirms that, at low redshifts 0.015 < z < 0.1, the bulk flow is moving in the $l=272^{+17}_{-17}, b=33^{+12}_{-12}$, and $302^{+20}_{-20},3^{+10}_{-10}$ directions with $v _\mathrm{bulk} = 225^{+38}_{-35}$ and $246^{+64}_{-46}$ km s−1 for the Pantheon and Union2 data respectively, in good agreement with the direction of the cosmic microwave background dipole and with a number of previous studies at 1σ. However, for high redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.2, we get $v _\mathrm{bulk} = 708^{+110}_{-110}$ and $v_\mathrm{bulk}=1014^{+86}_{-114}\,\text{km\,s}^{-1}$ towards l = 318 ± 10°, b = −15 ± 9° and $l=254^{+16}_{-14},\ b=6^{+7}_{-10}$ for the Pantheon and Union2 data respectively. This indicates that for low redshifts our results are approximately consistent with the ΛCDM model; however, for high redshifts they disagree with ΛCDM and support the results of those studies that report a large bulk flow for the universe.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (S308) ◽  
pp. 318-321
Author(s):  
Michael J. Hudson ◽  
Jonathan Carrick ◽  
Stephen J. Turnbull ◽  
Guilhem Lavaux

AbstractUsing redshifts from the 2M++ redshift compilation, we reconstruct the density of galaxies within 200 h−1 Mpc, and compare the predicted peculiar velocities Tully-Fisher and SNe peculiar velocities. The comparison yields a best-fit value of β ≡ Ωm0.55/b* = 0.431 ± 0.021, suggesting Ωm0.55σ8,lin = 0.401 ± 0.024, in good agreement with other probes. The predicted peculiar velocity of the Local Group from sources within the 2M++ volume is 540 ± 40 km s−1, towards l = 268° ± 4°, b = 38° ± 6°, which is misaligned by only 10° with the Cosmic Microwave Background dipole. To account for sources outside the 2M++ volume, we fit simultaneously for β* and an external bulk flow in our analysis. The external bulk flow has a velocity of 159 ± 23 km s−1 towards l = 304° ± 11°, b6° ± 13°.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Shah ◽  
Pablo Lemos ◽  
Ofer Lahav

AbstractSince the expansion of the universe was first established by Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaître about a century ago, the Hubble constant $$H_0$$ H 0 which measures its rate has been of great interest to astronomers. Besides being interesting in its own right, few properties of the universe can be deduced without it. In the last decade, a significant gap has emerged between different methods of measuring it, some anchored in the nearby universe, others at cosmological distances. The SH0ES team has found $$H_0 = 73.2 \pm 1.3 \; \;\,\hbox {kms}^{-1} \,\hbox {Mpc}^{-1}$$ H 0 = 73.2 ± 1.3 kms - 1 Mpc - 1 locally, whereas the value found for the early universe by the Planck Collaboration is $$H_0 = 67.4 \pm 0.5 \; \;\,\hbox {kms}^{-1} \,\hbox {Mpc}^{-1}$$ H 0 = 67.4 ± 0.5 kms - 1 Mpc - 1 from measurements of the cosmic microwave background. Is this gap a sign that the well-established $${\varLambda} {\text{CDM}}$$ Λ CDM cosmological model is somehow incomplete? Or are there unknown systematics? And more practically, how should humble astronomers pick between competing claims if they need to assume a value for a certain purpose? In this article, we review results and what changes to the cosmological model could be needed to accommodate them all. For astronomers in a hurry, we provide a buyer’s guide to the results, and make recommendations.


Author(s):  
Hui Chieh Teoh

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) holds many secrets of the origin and the evolution of our universe. This ancient radiation was created shortly after the Big Bang, when the expanding universe cooled and became transparent, sending an afterglow of light in all directions. It is a pattern frozen in place that dates back to 375,000 years after the birth of the universe. Numerous experiments and space missions have made increasingly higher resolution maps of the CMB radiation, with the aims to learn more about the conditions of our early universe and the origin of stars, galaxies, and the large-scale cosmic structures that populate our universe today.


1996 ◽  
Vol 168 ◽  
pp. 175-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.S. Mathewson ◽  
V.L. Ford

Peculiar velocity measurements of 2500 southern spiral galaxies show large-scale flows in the direction of the Hydra-Centaurus clusters which fully participate in the flow themselves. The flow is not uniform over this region and seems to be associated with the denser regions which participate in the flow of amplitude about 400km/s. In the less dense regions the flow is small or non-existent. This makes the flow quite asymmetric and inconsistent with that expected from large-scale, parallel streaming flow that includes all galaxies out to 6000km/s as previously thought. The flow cannot be modelled by a Great Attractor at 4300km/s or the Centaurus clusters at 3500km/s. Indeed, from the density maps derived from the redshift surveys of “optical” and IRAS galaxies, it is difficult to see how the mass concentrations can be responsible particularly as they themselves participate in the flow. These results bring into question the generally accepted reason for the peculiar velocities of galaxies that they arise solely as a consequence of infall into the dense regions of the universe. To the N. of the Great Attractor region, the flow increases and shows no sign of diminishing out to the redshift limit of 8000km/s in this direction. We may have detected flow in the nearest section of the Great Wall.


1997 ◽  
Vol 480 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo de Bernardis ◽  
Amedeo Balbi ◽  
Giancarlo De Gasperis ◽  
Alessandro Melchiorri ◽  
Nicola Vittorio

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 2201-2207
Author(s):  
ADAM MOSS ◽  
DOUGLAS SCOTT

Structures in the Universe grew through gravitational instability from very smooth initial conditions. Energy conservation requires that the growing negative potential energy of these structures be balanced by an increase in kinetic energy. A fraction of this is converted into heat in the collisional gas of the intergalactic medium. Using a toy model of gravitational heating, we attempt to link the growth of structure in the Universe with the average temperature of this gas. We find that the gas is rapidly heated from collapsing structures at around z ~ 10, reaching a temperature > 106 K today, depending on some assumptions of our simplified model. Before that there was a cold era from z ~ 100 to ~10 in which the matter temperature was below that of the cosmic microwave background.


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