Properties of superclusters

Over the past decade and a half, study of the formation and evolution of galaxies, clusters, and superclusters has experience remarkable growth. Advances in detectors and digital image processing have made the acquisition of galaxy redshifts and photometry much simpler and less time-intensive. As is often the case in science, however, the increase in the amount of data has produced more questions than answers about the distribution of galaxies and their clustering properties. This thesis attempts to answer some of the questions regarding the nature of superclusters by performing a global statistical analysis of the Abell and Zwicky cluster catalogs and by studying, in finer detail, the distribution and dynamics of galaxies in the region of the Corona Borealis supercluster. Chapter 1 discusses the magnitude - redshift relation for Abell clusters and reliability of redshift estimates based on photometric data. Results of a study of the clustering properties of Abell and Zwicky clusters using the two-point angular and spatial correlation function are presented in chapter 2. Chapter 3 contains a description of the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the Corona Borealis region. The dynamics and kinematics of galaxies in the Corona Borealis supercluster are described in chapter 4