A non‐parametric model for the cosmic velocity field

We present a self‐consistent non‐parametric model of the local cosmic velocity field derived from the distribution of IRAS galaxies in the PSC z redshift survey. The survey has been analysed using two independent methods, both based on the assumptions of gravitational instability and linear biasing. The two methods, which give very similar results, have been tested and calibrated on mock PSC z catalogues constructed from cosmological N ‐body simulations. The denser sampling provided by the PSC z survey compared with previous IRAS galaxy surveys allows an improved reconstruction of the density and velocity fields out to large distances. The most striking feature of the model velocity field is a coherent large‐scale streaming motion along the baseline connecting Perseus–Pisces, the Local Supercluster, the Great Attractor and the Shapley Concentration. We find no evidence for back‐infall on to the Great Attractor. Instead, material behind and around the Great Attractor is inferred to be streaming towards the Shapley Concentration, aided by the compressional push of two large nearby underdensities. The PSC z model velocities compare well with those predicted from the 1.2‐Jy redshift survey of IRAS galaxies and, perhaps surprisingly, with those predicted from the distribution of Abell/ACO clusters, out to 140  h −1  Mpc. Comparison of the real‐space density fields (or, alternatively, the peculiar velocity fields) inferred from the PSC z and cluster catalogues gives a relative (linear) bias parameter between clusters and IRAS galaxies of b c =4.4±0.6. Finally, we implement a likelihood analysis that uses all the available information on peculiar velocities in our local Universe to estimate (1 σ ), where b is the bias parameter for IRAS galaxies.