Radial redshift space distortions

The radial component of the peculiar velocities of galaxies causes displace ments in the galaxies' positions in redshift space. We study the effect of the peculiar velocities on the linear redshift space two-point correlation function. Our analysis takes into account the radial nature of the redshift space distortions, and it highlights the limitations of the plane-parallel approximation. We consider the problem of determining the value of beta an d the real space two-point correlation function from the linear redshift sp ace two-point correlation function. The inversion method proposed here take s into account the radial nature of the redshift space distortions and can be applied to magnitude-limited redshift surveys that have only partial sky coverage.