Large‐Scale Structure, Steaming and Galaxy Formation

“Observational results indicating large‐scale streaming motions in the universe might be real giant‐killers of theories,” says theorist Richard Bond (Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics). (See news story on page 17.) Models based on the inflationary paradigm (see Andrei Linde's article in PHYSICS TODAY, September, page 61) are severely strained by the recent observations, Bond told us: “If true, the large‐scale streaming puts in jeopardy the assumed initial spectrum of density fluctuations coming out of inflation. But the microwave background is, I think, ultimately the best probe of fluctuations and structure.”