Identification of Superclusters and Their Properties in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Using the WHL Cluster Catalog

Superclusters are the largest massive structures in the cosmic web. The authors present a large catalog of 662 superclusters identified using a modified Friends-of-Friends (FoF) algorithm applied to the WHL (Wen-Han-Liu) galaxy cluster catalog within 0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.42. The most massive supercluster at z ≈ 0.25 is newly identified and proposed to be named the Einasto Supercluster. The median supercluster mass is ≈ 5.8 × 10^15 M⊙ and median size ≈ 65 Mpc. The supercluster environment slightly biases cluster growth toward higher masses. Observed supercluster properties are compared with mock superclusters extracted from the Horizon Run 4 simulation and show broad agreement. A power-law correlation is found between density contrast and maximum extent with slope α ≈ −2. Phase-space analysis of mock superclusters indicates that on average ≈ 90% of a supercluster’s volume exerts gravitational influence on its constituents. The study also presents number density and peculiar velocity profiles of mock halos in and around superclusters.