Studies on the statistical properties of the large scale structure of the universe have often separated the problem into a spatial point distribution of galaxies and a functional variation of their luminosity independent of position. We consequently attempt to bridge these two approaches by defining a family of generalized luminosity fields which depends on both spatial resolution and luminosity intensity. From analysis of 3, 2, and 1-dimensional catalogues, we find that in 3d the galaxy luminosity field exhibits two signatures of multifractal behavior: multiscaling and divergent statistical moments. Furthermore, we find evidence suggesting that the statislics governing this multifractal behaviour are determined by the parameters (the degree of multifractalily of the field) and C$ sb{1,1}$ (the codimension of the mean luminosity) which we estimate as 1.2 $ pm$ 0.4 and 1.28 $ pm$ 0.06 respectively. We consequently suggest that the non-linear mechanisms responsible for the formation of galaxies may be of multifractal origin. As many of the analyses were performed on projected fields a theoretical framework for multifractal projections is also developed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.55495 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Garrido, Pablo |
| Contributors | Lovejoy, S. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001433834, proquestno: AAIMM00021, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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