Large-scale cosmic flows and moving dark energy

Abstract

Large-scale matter bulk flows with respect to the cosmic microwave background have very recently been detected on scales less than or similar to 100h(-1) Mpc and less than or similar to 300h(-1) Mpc by using two different techniques showing an excellent agreement in the motion direction. However, the unexpectedly large measured amplitudes are difficult to understand within the context of standard Lambda CDM cosmology. In this work we show that the existence of such a flow could be signaling the presence of moving dark energy at the time when photons decoupled from matter. We also comment on the relation between the direction of the CMB dipole and the preferred axis observed in the quadrupole in this scenario.