The effects of peculiar velocities in SN Ia environments on the local $H_0$ measurement

TL;DR

This study investigates how peculiar velocities of galaxies influence local measurements of the Hubble Constant using supernova data, finding that such velocities have minimal impact on the existing tension between local and CMB-based $H_0$ estimates.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new density-based proxy for peculiar velocities and demonstrates its effectiveness in correcting local $H_0$ measurements, showing minimal impact on the $H_0$ tension.

Findings

Density structures correlate with local $H_0$ estimates.

Peculiar velocity corrections change $H_0$ by less than 0.1%.

Environment-induced velocities do not resolve the $H_0$ tension.

Abstract

The discrepancy between estimates of the Hubble Constant ($H_0$) measured from local ($z \lesssim 0.1$) scales and from scales of the sound horizon is a crucial problem in modern cosmology. Peculiar velocities ($v_{pec}$) of standard candle distance indicators can systematically affect local $H_0$ measurements. We here use 2MRS galaxies to measure the local galaxy density field, finding a notable $z$ < 0.05 under-density in the SGC-6dFGS region of 27 $\pm$ 2 %. However, no strong evidence for a 'Local Void' pertaining to the full 2MRS sky coverage is found. Galaxy densities are used to measure a density parameter, $\Delta \phi_{+-}$, which we introduce as a proxy for $v_{pec}$ which quantifies density gradients along a SN line-of-sight. $\Delta \phi_{+-}$ is found to correlate with local $H_0$ estimates from 88 Pantheon SNeIa (0.02 < $z$ < 0.05). Density structures on scales of $\sim$ 50 Mpc are found to correlate strongest with $H_0$ estimates in both the observational data and in mock data from the MDPL2-Galacticus simulation. Using trends of $H_0$ with $\Delta \phi_{+-}$, we can correct for the effects of density structure on local $H_0$ estimates, even in the presence of biased $v_{pec}$. However, the difference in the inferred $H_0$ estimate with and without the peculiar velocity correction is limited to < 0.1 %. We conclude that accounting for environmentally-induced peculiar velocities of SNIa host galaxies does not resolve the tension between local and CMB-derived $H_0$ estimates.