Cosmology in One Dimension: Fractal Geometry, Power Spectra and Correlation

Concentrations of matter, such as galaxies and galactic clusters, originated as very small density fluctuations in the early universe. The existence of galaxy clusters and super-clusters suggests that a natural scale for the matter distribution may not exist. A point of controversy is whether the distribution is fractal and, if so,over what range of scales. One-dimensional models demonstrate that the important dynamics for cluster formation occur in the position-velocity plane. Here the development of scaling behavior and multifractal geometry is investigated for a family of one-dimensional models for three different, scale-free, initial conditions. A possible physical mechanism for understanding the self-similar evolution is introduced. It is shown that hierarchical cluster formation depends both on the model and the initial power spectrum. Under special circumstances a simple relation between the power spectrum, correlation function, and correlation dimension in the highly nonlinear regime is confirmed.