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Angular correlation function

Measure of the projected clustering of galaxies

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Source updated November 30, 2023

The angular correlation function is a function which measures the projected clustering of galaxies, due to discrepancies between their actual and expected distributions. The function may be computed as follows: $w(\theta )={\frac {1}{N}}{\frac {dP}{d\Omega }}-1$ , where $P$ represents the conditional probability of finding a galaxy, $\Omega$ denotes the solid angle, and $N$ is the mean number density. In a homogeneous universe, the angular correlation scales with a characteristic depth.

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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Angular correlation function”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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