%0 Journal Article
%T The Projected Three-point Correlation Function: Theory and Observations
%A J. A. Frieman
%A E. Gaztanaga
%J Physics
%D 1999
%I arXiv
%R 10.1086/312195
%X We report results for the angular three-point galaxy correlation function in the APM survey and compare them with theoretical expectations. For the first time, these measurements extend to sufficiently large scales to probe the weakly non-linear regime. On large scales, the results are in good agreement with the predictions of non-linear cosmological perturbation theory, for a model with initially Gaussian fluctuations and linear power spectrum $P(k)$ consistent with that inferred from the APM survey. These results reinforce the conclusion that large-scale structure is driven by non-linear gravitational instability and that APM galaxies are relatively unbiased tracers of the mass on large scales; they also provide stringent constraints upon models with non-Gaussian initial conditions and strongly exclude the standard cold dark matter model.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9903423v1