THE BULLS-EYE EFFECT AS A PROBE OF OMEGA

We compare the statistical properties of structures normal and transve rse to the line of sight that appear in theoretical N-body simulations of structure formation and also seem to be present in observational d ata from redshift surveys. We present a statistic that can quantify th is effect in a conceptually different way from standard analyses of di stortions of the power spectrum or correlation function. From tests wi th N-body experiments, we argue that this statistic represents a new a nd potentially powerful diagnostic of the cosmological density paramet er, Omega.