Large-scale peculiar velocities through the galaxy luminosity function
  at z ~ 0.1
  Peculiar motion introduces systematic variations in the observed luminosity
distribution of galaxies. This allows one to constrain the cosmic peculiar
velocity field from large galaxy redshift surveys. Using around half a million
galaxies from the SDSS Data Release 7 at z ~ 0.1, we demonstrate the
applicability of this approach to large datasets and obtain bounds on peculiar
velocity moments and $\sigma_{8}$, the amplitude of the linear matter power
spectrum. Our results are in good agreement with the $\Lambda$CDM model and
consistent with the previously reported ~ 1% zero-point tilt in the SDSS
photometry. Finally, we discuss the prospects of constraining the growth rate
of density perturbations by reconstructing the full linear velocity field from
the observed galaxy clustering in redshift space.
