A connection between galaxy probabilities in zwicky clusters counting distributions in particle physics and quantum optics

Abstract

We have evaluated the probability distribution for finding n galaxies in a Zwicky cluster for six regions of the sky for a depth sample corresponding to 15 × 10 3 km/s < V s < 60 × 10 3 km/s red-shift velocity. Two regions differ from the other four by having a significantly greater high multiplicity tail and a lower peak value. In our view these tails correspond to ongoing gravitational coalescence of clusters, which is more effective in more heterogeneous regions. We obtain by subtraction a distribution to be identified with the original cluster distribution. The form of this distribution belongs to a general class characteristic of chaotic production mechanisms already identified in photoelectron counts from thermal sources and in hadronic charged particle multiplicity distributions. The possible nature of this universal mechanism is discussed.