The Bull's-Eye Effect: Are Galaxy Walls Observationally Enhanced?

Abstract

We investigate a distortion in redshift-space which causes galaxies to appear to lie in walls concentric about the observer, forming a rough bull's-eye pattern. We simulate what an observer would see in a thin slice of redshift-space, including a magnitude limit and constant slice angle. The result is an enhanced ring of galaxies encircling the observer at a distance roughly corresponding to the peak of the selection function. This ring is an artificial enhancement of weak features in real-space. This may explain visually prominent features such as the ``Great Wall'' and periodicity found in deep narrow fields.

Moderate revisions, including explanation of which effects do and do not contribute to the enhancement. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Uses aasms4.sty. 15 pages. Figure 1 and higher resolution version of Figure 2 available at: ftp://kusmos.phsx.ukans.edu/preprints/bulls

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