Potent Reconstruction from Mark Iii Velocities

We present an improved version of the POTENT method for reconstructing the velocity and mass density fields from radial peculiar velocities, test it with mock catalogs, and apply it to the Mark III Catalog of Galaxy Peculiar Velocities. The method is improved in several ways: (a) the inhomogeneous Malmquist bias is reduced by grouping and corrected statistically in either forward or inverse analyses of inferred distances, (b) the smoothing into a radial velocity field is optimized such that window and sampling biases are reduced, (c) the density field is derived from the velocity field using an improved weakly non-linear approximation in Eulerian space, and (d) the computational errors are made negligible compared to the other errors. The method is carefully tested and optimized using realistic mock catalogs based on an N-body simulation that mimics our cosmological neighborhood, and the remaining systematic and random errors are evaluated quantitatively. The Mark III catalog, with ∼3300 grouped galaxies, allows a reliable reconstruction with fixed Gaussian smoothing of 10 − 12 hMpc out to ∼ 60 hMpc and beyond in some directions. We present maps of the three-dimensional velocity and massdensity fields and the corresponding errors. The typical systematic and random errors in the density fluctuations inside 40 hMpc are ±0.13 and ±0.18. The recovered mass distribution resembles in its gross features the galaxy distribution in redshift surveys and the mass distribution in a similar POTENT analysis of a complementary velocity catalog (SFI), including the Great Attractor, Perseus-Pisces, and the large void in between. The reconstruction inside ∼ 40 hMpc is not affected much by a revised calibration of the distance indicators (VM2, tailored to match the velocities from the IRAS 1.2 Jy redshift survey). The bulk velocity within the sphere of radius 50 hMpc about the Local Group is V50 = 370 ± 110 km s (including systematic errors), and is shown to be mostly generated by external mass fluctuations. With the VM2 calibration, V50 is reduced to 305± 110 km s. Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel Dept. of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800 Dept. of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4060 NRC/HIA, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, 5071 W. Saanich Rd, Victoria, BC, V8X 4M6 Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Box 871504, Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ 85287