The Bull's-Eye Effect: Are Galaxy Walls Observationally Enhanced?
Abstract
We investigate a distortion in redshift-space which causes galaxies to appear to lie in walls concentric about the observer, forming a rough bull's-eye pattern. We simulate what an observer would see in a thin slice of redshift-space, including a magnitude limit and constant slice angle. The result is an enhanced ring of galaxies encircling the observer at a distance roughly corresponding to the peak of the selection function. This ring is an artificial enhancement of weak features in real-space. This may explain visually prominent features such as the ``Great Wall'' and periodicity found in deep narrow fields.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9608017,
title = {The Bull's-Eye Effect: Are Galaxy Walls Observationally Enhanced?},
author = {Elizabeth. A. Praton and Adrian L. Melott and Margaret Q. McKee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9608017},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Moderate revisions, including explanation of which effects do and do not contribute to the enhancement. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Uses aasms4.sty. 15 pages. Figure 1 and higher resolution version of Figure 2 available at: ftp://kusmos.phsx.ukans.edu/preprints/bulls