AAS 199th meeting, Washington, DC, January 2002
Session 100. Galaxy Clusters and Mergers
Display, Wednesday, January 9, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[100.08] Optimal Moments for the Analysis of Peculiar Velocity Surveys

R. Watkins (Willamette U.), H.A. Feldman (U. Kansas)

We present a new method for the analysis of peculiar velocity surveys which removes contributions to velocities from small scale, nonlinear velocity modes while retaining information about large scale motions. Our method utilizes Karhunen-Loeve methods of data compression to construct a set of moments out of the velocities which are minimally sensitive to small scale power. The set of moments are then used in a likelihood analysis. We develop criteria for the selection of moments, as well as a statistic to quantify the overall sensitivity of a set of moments to small scale power. Although we discuss our method in the context of peculiar velocity surveys, it may also prove useful in other situations where data filtering is required.


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