A Comparison of Local SNIa with the IRAS PSCz Gravity Field

Abstract

We compare the measured peculiar velocities of 98 local (<150/h Mpc) type Ia supernovae with predictions derived from the PSCz survey. There is excellent agreement between the two datasets with a best fit beta_I (=Omega_m^0.6/b_I) of 0.55+-0.06. Subsets of the supernovae dataset are further analysed and the above result is found to be robust with respect to culls by distance, host-galaxy extinction and to the choice of reference frame in which the analysis is carried out. Alternative methods of determining beta_I including density-density comparisons, dipole measurements and WMAP-based results are also discussed. We conclude that most recent determinations are consistent with a value of beta_I=0.5.