THE EFFECTS OF THE PEAK-PEAK CORRELATION ON THE PEAK MODEL OF HIERARCHICAL-CLUSTERING

In two previous papers a semianalytical model was presented for the hi erarchical clustering of halos via gravitational instability from peak s in a random Gaussian field of density fluctuations. This model is be tter founded than the extended Press-Schechter model, which is known t o agree with numerical simulations, and it makes similar predictions. The specific merger rate, however, shows a significant departure at in termediate captured masses. The origin of this was suspected to be the rather crude approximation used for the density of nested peaks. Here , we seek to verify this suspicion by implementing a more accurate exp ression for the latter quantity, which accounts for the correlation am ong peaks. We confirm that the inclusion of the peak-peak correlation improves the specific merger rate, while the good behavior of the rema ining quantities is preserved.