Nature of Clustering in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey

Abstract

We have carried out a multi-fractal analysis of the distribution of galaxies in the three Northern slices of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey. Our method takes into account the selection effects and the complicated geometry of the survey. In this analysis we have studied the scaling properties of the distribution of galaxies on length scales from $20 h^{-1} Mpc$ to $200 h^{-1} Mpc$. Our main results are: (1) The distribution of galaxies exhibits a multi-fractal scaling behaviour over the scales $20 h^{-1} Mpc$ to $80 h^{-1} Mpc$, and, (2) the distribution is homogeneous on the scales $80h^{-1} Mpc$ to $200 h^{-1} Mpc$. We conclude that the universe is homogeneous at large scales and the transition to homogeneity occurs somewhere in the range $80 h^{-1} Mpc$ to $100 h^{-1} Mpc$.