MAPPING THE GALAXY DISTRIBUTION AT LARGE DISTANCES

摘要

We present the first results of the ESO-Sculptor Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey designed to study the large-scale galaxy distribution at large distances in the direction of the southern Galactic pole. The galaxy catalog is based on deep multicolor CCD photometry. To date, 353 galaxies with R ≤ 20.5 have a reliable redshift, representing a ～52% complete sample over 0.28 deg~2. By its combination of angular coverage and high sampling rate, this survey provides the first detailed maps of the galaxy distribution in the redshift interval 0.1 approx< z approx< 0.5. These maps reveal a large number of sharp walls separated by vast regions devoid of galaxies with diameters approx< 50 h~(-1) Mpc (using H_0 = 100 h km s~(-1) Mpc~(-1) and q_0 = 0.5). We find no evidence for periodic structure on scales ～130 h~(-1) Mpc as suggested by Koo et al. (1993). From the ESO-Sculptor Survey, the large-scale structure at z approx< 0.5 appears to be consistent with the results of the nearby surveys (Geller & Huchra 1989). These new data underline the essential role of densely sampled redshift surveys for understanding the large-scale clustering at large distances.