A First Comparison of the SBF Survey Distances with the Galaxy Density Field: Implications for H_0 and Omega

We compare the peculiar velocities measured in the SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances with the predictions from the density fields of the IRAS 1.2 Jy flux-limited redshift survey and the Optical Redshift Survey (ORS) to derive simultaneous constraints on the Hubble constant $H_0$ and the density parameter $\beta ={\mathrm{\Omega }}^{0.6}\mathrm{/}b$, where $b$ is the linear bias. We find ${\beta }_I=0.42_{-0.06}^{+0.10}$ and ${\beta }_O=0.26\pm 0.08$ for the IRAS and ORS comparisons, respectively, and $H_0=74\pm 4$ \kmsMpc (with an additional 9% uncertainty due to the Cepheids themselves). The match between predicted and observed peculiar velocities is good for these values of $H_0$ and $\beta$, and although there is covariance between the two parameters, our results clearly point toward low-density cosmologies. Thus, the unresolved discrepancy between the velocity-velocity'' and density-density’’ measurements of $\beta$ continues.