Redshift Surveys and the Value of Omega

Abstract

We compare the statistical properties of structures normal and transverse to the line of sight which appear in observational data from redshift surveys. We present a statistic which can quantify this effect in a conceptually different way from standard analyses of distortions of the power-spectrum or correlation function. From tests with N-body experiments, we argue that this statistic represents a new, more direct and potentially powerful diagnostic of the cosmological density parameter Omega.