The Angular Three-Point Correlation Function in the Quasilinear Regime

We calculate the normalized angular three-point correlation function (3PCF), q, as well as the normalized angular skewness, s3, assuming the small-angle approximation, for a biased mass distribution in flat and open cold-dark-matter (CDM) models with Gaussian initial conditions. The leading-order perturbative results incorporate the explicit dependence on the cosmological parameters, the shape of the CDM transfer function, the linear evolution of the power spectrum, the form of redshift distribution function, and linear and nonlinear biasing, which may be evolving. Results are presented for different redshift distributions, including that appropriate for the APM Galaxy Survey, as well as for a survey with a mean redshift of z ≃ 1 (such as the VLA FIRST Survey). Qualitatively, many of the results found for s3 and q are similar to those obtained in a related treatment of the spatial skewness and 3PCF (Buchalter & Kamionkowski 1999), such as a leading-order correction to the standard result for s3 in the case of nonlinear bias (as defined for unsmoothed density fields), and the sensitivity of the configuration dependence of q to both cosmological and biasing models. We show that since angular CFs are sensitive to clustering over a range of redshifts, the various evolutionary dependences included in our predictions imply [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]