Using the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect to determine the peculiar velocities of clusters of galaxies

We have investigated the possibility of inferring peculiar velocities for clusters of galaxies from the Doppler shift of scattered cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. We find that if the core radius of the gas distribution or the beamsize of the instrument is larger than 3-7 arcmin, then the attainable signal-re-noise ratio is limited by confusion with primary fluctuations. For smaller angular scales, 'cosmic confusion' is less important and instrumental noise and/or foreground emission will be the limiting factor. For a cluster with the optical depth of the Coma cluster and for an optimal filtering technique, typical one sigma errors span the wide range from 400 to 1600 km s(-1), depending on the cosmological model, the resolution of the instrument, and the core radius of the cluster. The results have important implications for the design of future high-resolution surveys of the CMB. Individual peculiar velocities will be measurable only for a few fast moving clusters at intermediate redshift unless cosmic fluctuations are smaller than most standard cosmological scenarios predict. However, a reliable measurement of bulk velocities of ensembles of X-ray bright clusters will be possible on very large scales (100-500 h(-1) Mpc).