Anisotropies in the redshift-space correlations of galaxy groups and clusters I: Simulated catalogues

We analyse the correlation function of mock galaxy clusters in redshift space. We constructed several mock catalogues designed to mimic the selection biases inherent in a variety of observational surveys. We explore different effects that contribute to the distortion of the clustering pattern; the pairwise velocity distribution of galaxy systems, coherent bulk motions, redshift errors and systematics in cluster identification. Our tests show that the redshift-space clustering pattern of galaxy systems is highly influenced by effects associated with the identification procedure from two dimensional surveys. These systems show a spuriously large correlation amplitude, an effect that is present and even stronger in a subsample whose angular positions coincide with 3-dimensional identified clusters. The use of a small number of redshift measurements in the determination of the cluster distance has a smaller impact on the measured correlation function. We show that an angular incompleteness in redshift surveys, such as that present in the 2dFGRS 100k public release, has no significant effect in the results. We suggest that the nature of projection effects arise mainly from structures along the line of sight in the filamentary large-scale clustering pattern. Thus spectroscopic surveys are the only means of providing unbiased cluster samples.