Cluster versus POTENT density and velocity fields:: cluster biasing and Ω

The density and velocity fields as extracted from the Abell/ACO clusters are compared with the corresponding fields recovered by the POTENT method from the Mark III peculiar velocities of galaxies. In order to minimize non-linear effects and to deal with ill-sampled regions, we smooth both fields using a Gaussian window with radii ranging between 12 and 20 h(-1) Mpc. The density and velocity fields within 70 h(-1) Mpc exhibit similarities, qualitatively consistent with gravitational instability theory and a linear biasing relation between clusters and mass. The random and systematic errors are evaluated with the help of mock catalogues. Quantitative comparisons within a volume containing similar to 12 independent samples yield beta(c)=Omega(0.6)/b(c)=0.22 +/- 0.08, where b(c) is the cluster biasing parameter at 15 h(-1) Mpc. If b(c)similar to 4.5, as indicated by the cluster correlation function, our result is consistent with Omega similar to 1.