Abstract
Recent observations1–3 indicate that large regions of the Universe 60 h−1 Mpc in radius (where h is the Hubble constant in units of 100 km s−1 Mpc−1) may be streaming coherently with velocities up to 1,000 km s−1 with respect to the rest frame determined by the cosmic microwave background. In this letter the peculiar velocities which arise in the cosmic string theory of galaxy formation are estimated using numerical simulations. In contrast to models of formation of structure based on primordial linear energy density fluctuations with random phases, the distribution of velocities is highly non-gaussian on scales smaller than 50 h−1 Mpc. The most likely velocities are approximately scale independent on scales between 5 and 50 h−1 Mpc.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Collins, C., Joseph, R. & Robertson, N. Nature 320, 506–508 (1986).
Burstein, D. et al. in The Extragalactic Distance Scale and Deviations from the Hubble Flow (ed Madore, B.) (Reidel, Dordrecht 1986).
Aaronson, M. et al. Astrophys. J. 302, 536–563 (1986).
Bond, J. in The Extragalactic Distance Scale and Deviations from the Hubble Flow (ed. Madore, B.) (Reidel, Dordrecht 1986).
Vittorio, N., Juszkiewicz, R. & Davis, M. Nature 323, 132–133 (1986).
Zel'dovich, Ya. B. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 192, 663–667 (1980).
Vilenkin, A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 1169–1173 (1981).
Kibble, T. W. B. Phys. Rep. 67, 183–199 (1980).
Rubin, V., Ford, W., Thonnard, N., Roberts, M. & Graham, J. Astr. J. 81, 687–718 (1976).
Peebles, P. J. E. The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe (Princeton University Press, 1980).
Vilenkin, A. Phys. Rep. 121, 263–315 (1985).
Albrecht, A. & Turok, N. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 1868–1871 (1985).
Silk, J. & Vilenkin, A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 53, 1700–1703 (1984).
Vachaspati, T. Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 1655–1657 (1986).
Traschen, J., Turok, N. & Brandenberger, R. Phys. Rev. D 34, 919–930 (1986).
Zel'dovich, Ya. B. Adv. Astr. Astrophys. 3, 241–379 (1965).
Hogan, C., Kaiser, N. & Rees, M. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 307, 97–110 (1982).
Traschen, J. Phys. Rev. D29, 1563–1574 (1984).
Turok, N. & Brandenberger, R. Phys. Rev. D33, 2175–2181 (1986).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shellard, E., Brandenberger, R., Kaiser, N. et al. Large-scale peculiar velocities from cosmic strings. Nature 326, 672–675 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/326672a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/326672a0
This article is cited by
-
Stringing along the galaxies
Nature (1988)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.