Investigating the Ability of Peculiar Velocity Measurements to Distinguish Modified Gravity Models

This thesis investigates what model of gravity could best explain the accelerated expansion of the universe attributed to dark energy. Gravity models also inform the statistical distribution of galaxy velocities, which I compare to SDSS peculiar velocity data. DGP and f(R) models of gravity were compared, but neither fit the data better than the accepted LCDM model. Further research showed environment specific measurements were more sensitive to different gravity models. As peculiar velocity surveys grow, this method offers competitive constraints on what laws govern gravity on cosmic scales.