In efforts to demonstrate the linear Hubble law v = Hr from galaxy
observations, the underlying simplicity is often obscured by complexities
arising from magnitude-limited data. In this paper we point out a simple but
previously unremarked fact: that the shapes and orientations of structures in
redshift space contain in themselves independent information about the
cosmological redshift-distance relation.
The orientations of voids in the CfA slice support the Hubble law, giving a
redshift-distance power index p = 0.83 +/- 0.36 (void data from Slezak, de
Lapparent, & Bijoui 1993) or p = 0.99 +/- 0.38 (void data from Malik &
Subramanian 1997).Comment: 11 pages (AASTeX), 4 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal
Letter