The amount of structure present among the Abell clusters out to redshift z = 0.085 has been compared with numerical supercomputer simulations (with 643 particles) of the isothermal, neutrino, and cold particle models for large-scale structure, assuming a flat universe and H = 50 km sec−1 Mpc−1. High-density clusters of particles were identified in each simulation. Correlation and percolation tests were then used to compare the spatial distribution of these high-density points with the apparent superclustering among Abell clusters. While all of the models had some small superclusters (the neutrino model has too many), none came very close to possessing the extremely extensive structures found in the Abell clusters (generally, disagreement by 2σ or more).

A second set of simulations used the cold particle model with Ω = 0.2 and 0.5. The structures found in these simulations were certainly larger than those of the Ω = 1.0 cold particle case, but still > 2σ too small in comparisons with the Abell clusters.