The spatial distribution of southern clusters

We present a determination of the spatial distribution of clusters in the Southern Cluster Survey (Abell, Corwin & Olowin). We find the mean separation of clusters to be $60\pm5 \enspace h^{-1}$ Mpc and the two-point correlation function to be well fitted by a power-law with index − 2.3. The associated correlation length is $30\pm5 \enspace h^{-1}$ Mpc, although the results are consistent with there being no clustering on scales $\gtrsim 20 \enspace h^{-1}$ Mpc. These results, calculated from the angular correlation function, are found to be robust; they are relatively insensitive to the parameters of the adopted model. We compare these results with those obtained from Abell's northern cluster catalogue by Bahcall & Soneira and advance reasons for the discrepancy at large separations.