The supercluster–void network^*

I. The supercluster catalogue and large-scale distribution

¹ Tartu Observatory, EE-2444 Tõravere, Estonia
² IUE Observatory, Villafranca, Apartado 50727, E-28080 Madrid, Spain

Received: 4 March 1996
Accepted: 21 August 1996

Abstract

We investigate the distribution of superclusters and voids using a new catalogue of superclusters of rich clusters of galaxies which extends up to a redshift of . The new catalogue contains 220 superclusters of rich clusters, of which 90 superclusters have been determined for the first time. Among them there are several very rich superclusters, containing at least eight member clusters. We demonstrate that two thirds of very rich superclusters are concentrated to a Dominant Supercluster Plane which is situated at a right angle with respect to the plane of the Local Supercluster and adjacent nearby superclusters. We apply several methods to estimate the characteristic distance between superclusters. The results indicate consistently the presence of a quite regular supercluster-void network with scale of h^-1 Mpc. Comparison with random supercluster catalogues shows significant differences between spatial distributions of real and random superclusters. We determine the selection function of the sample of clusters and suggest that the mean true space density of Abell clusters is , twice the conventionally used value.