The Correlation Function of Optically Selected Galaxy Clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Understand

We measure the two-point spatial correlation function for clusters selected from the photometric MaxBCG galaxy cluster catalog for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).

• We evaluate the correlation function for several cluster samples using different cuts in cluster richness.
• Fitting the results to power-laws, $\xi_{cc}(r) = (r/R_0)^{-\gamma}$, the estimated correlation length $R_0$ as a function of richness is broadly consistent with previous cluster observations and with expectations from N-body simulations.
• We study how the linear bias parameter scales with richness and compare our results to theoretical predictions.