SCALE DEPENDENCE OF 3-POINT CORRELATION-FUNCTIONS - MODEL PREDICTIONS AND REDSHIFT-SPACE CONTAMINATION

Three-point correlation functions of galaxies zeta(r(1), r(2), r(3),) in several cosmological models are examined in detail by using cosmological N-body simulation data. In particular, we study the dependence of zeta on the configurations of triplet (r(1), r(2), r(3)) which is compared with the hierarchical clustering Ansatz. We found a clear indication of the breakdown of the hierarchical Ansatz, the degree of which sensitively depends on the underlying fluctuation spectrum. Three-point correlation functions computed in redshift space, on the other hand, are shown to satisfy the hierarchical Ansatz quite remarkably; in the case of low-density cold dark matter universes, the normalized amplitude of zeta(r(1), r(2), r(3)) is almost unity on scales 0.1 h(-1) Mpc less than or similar to r less than or similar to 7 h(-1) Mpc independently of the triplet configurations.