The slingshot effect as a probe of transverse motions of galaxies

Abstract

There are currently no reliable methods to measure transverse velocities of galaxies. This is an important piece of information that could allow us to probe the physics of structure formation as well as testing the underlying theory of gravity. The slingshot effect, a special case of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, is expected to create dipole signals in the temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB). This effect creates a hot spot behind and a cold spot in front of moving massive objects. The dipole signal created by the slingshot effect can be used to measure transverse velocities, but because the signal is expected to be weak, the effect has not been measured yet. The aim is to show that the slingshot effect can be measured by stacking the signals of galaxies falling into a collapsing cluster. We evaluate if the effect can probe modified gravity. We use data from a simulated galaxy catalogue (MDPL2) to mimic observations. We identify a massive galaxy cluster, and make maps of the slingshot effect around infalling galaxies. We add uncorrelated Gaussian noise to each map. The maps are rotated according to the direction to the cluster centre, such that the dipole signal will add up constructively when stacking. We compare each stack to a dipole stencil and we find the probability for a false positive in the absence of the slingshot signal. Each galaxy gives a signal of around $\Delta T/T \approx 10^{-9}$, while the precision of CMB experiments of today are $\Delta T/T \approx 4 \times 10^{-6}$. By stacking around 10 000 galaxies, the slingshot signal can be over the detectable threshold with experiments of today. However, future CMB experiments must be used to be certain of the strength of the observed signal.