A DEEP ABELL CLUSTER REDSHIFT SURVEY

We have measured redshifts for a complete sample of 145 Abell clusters of galaxies. The sample covers a 561 square degree region at high Galactic latitude. The median redshift of the clusters in the sample is 0.16. For R ≥ 1 clusters the correlation length is r0 = 21h-1 Mpc. The amplitude of the correlation function is a factor of 1.4 less than that obtained by Bahcall and Soneira, but the difference is within the 1 σ uncertainties. In this sample we cannot detect clustering on scales ≳ 70h-1 Mpc. Although the maps of the cluster distribution in redshift space show a large void of diameter ∼ 20,000 km s-1, frequent occurrence of such large empty regions is consistent with the smaller scale behavior of the correlation function of the survey. Large-scale peculiar motions are ≲ 1000 km s-1. This limit is inconsistent with the claim of detection by Bahcall, Soneira, and Burgett of ∼ 2000 km s-1 peculiar motions. We suggest that the earlier result is affected by the Corona Borealis supercluster, which contributes more than a third of the excess pairs in the shallower survey.