The Power Spectrum of Rich Clusters to Scales Approaching 1000hmpc

Recently, there have been numerous analyses of the redshift space power spectrum of rich clusters of galaxies. Some of these analyses indicate a “bump” in the Abell/ACO cluster power spectrum around k = 0.05hMpc. Such a feature in the power spectrum excludes most standard formation models and indicates possible periodicity in the distribution of large-scale structure. However, the data used in detecting this peak include clusters with estimated redshifts and/or clusters outside of Abell’s (1958) statistical sample, i.e. R = 0 clusters. Here, we present estimations of the redshift-space power spectrum for a newly expanded sample of 545 R ≥ 1 Abell/ACO clusters which has a constant number density to z = 0.10 in the Southern Hemisphere and a nearly constant number density to z = 0.14 in the Northern Hemisphere. The volume sampled, ∼ 10hMpc, is large enough to accurately calculate the power per mode to scales approaching 10hMpc. We find the shape of the power spectrum is linear on scales 0.02 ≤ k ≤ 0.10hMpc, with enhanced power over less rare clusters such as APM clusters. The slope here is n = −1.4. We detect a flattening in the shape of the power spectrum from k = 0.02hMpc down to the largest scales we can accurately probe, k = 0.009hMpc. The power spectrum is essentially featureless, and we do not detect any significant peak at k ∼ 0.05hMpc. We compare the shape of the Abell/ACO rich cluster power spectrum to various linear models.