1 99 8 The egg - carton Universe

The distribution of superclusters in the Local Supercluster neighbourhood presents such a remarkable periodicity that some kind of network must fit the observed large scale structure. A three dimension chessboard has been suggested 1. The existence of this network is really a challenge for currently-suggested theoretical models. For instance, CDM models of the formation of the large scale structure predict a random distribution of superclusters 2. If the filaments of matter that are now observed building up the network are fossil relics of over-dense regions of magnetic field energy before Recombination, then it has been shown 3 that the simplest network compatible with magnetic field constraints is made up of octahedra contacting at their vertexes. This suggests a set of superimposed egg-carton structures. Our aim in this paper is to show that the real large-scale structure is actually fitted by the theoretical octahedron structure. For this task, a systematic statistical procedure is " a priori " to be preferred. However, such a procedure is difficult to develop, and the natural human ability to recognize structures provides a faster search, even if it introduces a degree of subjectivity. In this case, however, the identification of real octahedra is so clear and the network is so noticeably well defined that a direct inspection is straightforward. A fundamental plane of the egg-carton network would contain a large number of filaments and therefore a large number of superclusters. One of these fundamental planes can be identified with the SGZ=0 plane. In a plane very close to this one the high periodicity in the distribution of matter was discovered 2 and a high density of superclusters is to be found 4. This means in practice that the plane of the Local Supercluster coincides with this fundamental plane. Fig. 1 shows the 10 −3 clusters Mpc −3 contour in the plane SGZ=0 from Tully et al 4. The identification of a fundamental direction within this plane is straightforward. There is a noticeable alignment passing through Draco, Ursa Major, Leo, Hercules and the Great Attractor, and a long chain of smaller clusters ending at Tucana. Another fundamental direction perpendicular to this is also easily 1