DOMAIN-WALLS, PERCOLATION THEORY, AND ABELL CLUSTERS

We consider theories with late-time phase transitions that lead to the formation of energetically soft domain wall defects. These transition s occur in the vacuum state of a weakly coupled scalar field which is not in thermal equilibrium. The spatial properties and distribution of these domain walls are computed using percolation theory. Assuming sp herical collapse of matter, the percolation results are used to accura tely predict the richness distribution of Abell clusters.