2001/03/06 by T. Ekholm, Ekholm, T., Yu. V. Baryshev +8 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0103090
4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted to Astron. Astrophys. Letters
arxiv created 2001/03/06 · openalex publication_date 2001/03/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Cepheid distances of local galaxies (<7 Mpc) are used to study the very nearby velocity field, as pioneered by Sandage (Sandage 1986) who also pointed out its remarkable properties: linearity and quietness. The new data show that the velocity dispersion in the distance range as seen from the barycentre of the Local Group 1-8 Mpc is as low as 38 km/sec. The local rate of expansion coincides with the global Hubble constant. Down to 1.5 Mpc we cannot detect a deviation from the linear Hubble flow. This puts an upper limit for the mass of the Local Group, for a wide class of Friedman models, including those with the cosmological constant.