Origin and evolution of the large-scale structure of the universe

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (9) ◽  
pp. 799-807
Author(s):  
Joseph Silk

Ever since the epoch of the spontaneous breaking of grand unification symmetry between the nuclear and electromagnetic interactions, the universe has expanded under the imprint of a spectrum of density fluctuations that is generally considered to have originated in this phase transition. I will discuss various possibilities for the form of the primordial fluctuation spectrum, spanning the range of adiabatic fluctuations, isocurvature fluctuations, and cosmic strings. Growth of the seed fluctuations by gravitational instability generates the formation of large-scale structures, from the scale of galaxies to that of clusters and superclusters of galaxies. There are three areas of confrontation with observational cosmology that will be reviewed. The large-scale distribution of the galaxies, including the apparent voids, sheets and filaments, and the coherent peculiar velocity field on scales of several tens of megaparsecs, probe the primordial fluctuation spectrum on scales that are only mildly nonlinear. Even larger scales are probed by study of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which provides a direct glimpse of the primordial fluctuations that existed about 106 years or so after the initial big bang singularity. Galaxy formation is the process by which the building blocks of the universe have formed, involving a complex interaction between hydrodynamical and dynamical processes in a collapsing gas cloud. Both by detection of forming galaxies in the most remote regions of the universe and by study of the fundamental morphological characteristics of galaxies, which provide a fossilized memory of their past, can one relate the origin of galaxies to the same primordial fluctuation spectrum that gave rise' to the large-scale structure of the universe.

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (T26B) ◽  
pp. 179-180
Author(s):  
Francesco Bertola ◽  
Sadanori Okamura ◽  
Virginia L. Trimble ◽  
Mark Birkinshaw ◽  
Françoise Combes ◽  
...  

Division VIII gathers astronomers engaged in the study of the visible and invisible matter in the Universe at large, from Local Group galaxies via distant galaxies and galaxy clusters to the large-scale structure of the Universe and the cosmic background radiation.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (T27A) ◽  
pp. 283-285
Author(s):  
Sadanori Okamura ◽  
Elaine Sadler ◽  
Francesco Bertola ◽  
Mark Birkinshaw ◽  
Françoise Combes ◽  
...  

Division VIII provides a focus for astronomers studying a wide range of problems related to galaxies and cosmology. Objects of the study include individual galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies, large scale structure, comic microwave background radiation and the universe itself. Approaches are diverse from observational one to theoretical one including computer simulations.


Universe ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Maxim Nikonov ◽  
Mikhail Chekal ◽  
Stanislav Shirokov ◽  
Andrey Baryshev ◽  
Vladimir Gorokhov

New observations of high-redshift objects are crucial for the improvement of the standard ΛCDM cosmological model and our understanding of the Universe. One of the main directions of modern observational cosmology is the analysis of the large-scale structure of Universe, in particular, in deep fields. We study the large-scale structure of the Universe along the line of sight using the latest version of the COSMOS2015 catalogue, which contains 518,404 high quality photometric redshifts of galaxies selected in the optical range of the COSMOS field (2×2 deg2), with depth up to the redshift z∼6. We analyze large-scale fluctuations in the number of galaxies along the line of sight and provide an estimate of the average linear sizes of the self-correlating fluctuations (structures) in independent redshift bins of Δz=0.1 along with the estimate of the standard deviation from homogeneity (the observed cosmic variance). We suggest a new method of the line-of-sight analysis based on previous works and formulate further prospects of method development. For the case of the theoretical form of approximation of homogeneity in the ΛCDM framework, the average standard deviation of detected structures from homogeneity is σmeanΛCDM=0.09±0.02, and the average characteristic size of structures is RmeanΛCDM=790±150 Mpc. For the case of the empirical approximation of homogeneity, the average standard deviation of detected structures from homogeneity is σmeanempiric=0.08±0.01, and the average characteristic size of structures is Rmeanempiric=640±140 Mpc.


1987 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 627-638
Author(s):  
Yaoquan Chu ◽  
LiZhi Fang

The distribution of quasars has become one of the most interesting problems in observational cosmology. This is due mainly to the development of theory of the formation of large scale structure in the universe. In recent years, several scenarios of clustering have been proposed. In the adiabatic case, the clustering process is from larger scales to smaller ones, i.e., the first systems to form out would be on the scale of superclusters, then these systems fragment to form smaller scale systems such as galaxies. In the isothermal case, the clustering is from smaller scales to larger ones, namely, galaxies condense out at first and larger scale systems, such as clusters and superclusters, then form later via hierachical build-up processes. In the universe contain two components, the scenario of clustering might be different from both standard adiabatic and isothermal cases(1). According to this new scenario, there should be two kinds of small scale objects, one is formed due to fragment of larger scale systems, another is formed before large scale systems form.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (05) ◽  
pp. 1530011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshifumi Futamase

Gravitational lensing is a unique and direct probe of mass in the universe. It depends only on the law of gravity and does not depend on the dynamical state nor the composition of matter. Thus, it is used to study the distribution of the dark matter in the lensing object. Combined with the traditional observations such as optical and X-ray, it gives us useful informations of the structure formation in the universe. The lensing observables depend also on the global geometry as well as large scale structure of the universe. Therefore it is possible to withdraw useful constraints on the cosmological parameters once the distribution of lensing mass is accurately known. Since the first discovery of the lensing event by a galaxy in 1979, various kinds of lensing phenomena caused by star, galaxy, cluster of galaxies and large scale structure have been observed and are used to study mass distribution in various scales and cosmology. Thus, the gravitational lensing is now regarded as an indispensable research field in the observational cosmology. In this paper, we give an instructive introduction to gravitational lensing and its applications to cosmology.


Author(s):  
Nathalie Deruelle ◽  
Jean-Philippe Uzan

This chapter addresses the problem of fine-tuning the initial conditions of the previous chapter’s hot Big Bang model, so that the universe has the observed properties, as well as the problem of the origin of large-scale structure. It shows that these problems are related to each other, and can be solved by assuming a period of accelerated expansion in the earliest history of the universe. Since the 1980s, the general acceptance of this idea of a primordial inflationary phase can be considered as the third phase in the history of the development of relativistic cosmology. The chapter first outlines the issues with the hot Big Bang model: the flatness problem; the Big Bang horizon, and monopole problems; and the problem of the origin of the large-scale structure. It then provides a solution in the form of inflation, and goes on to discuss ‘chaotic’ inflation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. 105-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasushi Suto

Simulations of large-scale structure in the universe have played a vital role in observational cosmology since the 1980's in particular. Their important role will definitely continue to be true in the 21st century; indeed the requirements for simulations in the precision cosmology era will become more progressively demanding as they are supposed to fill the missing link in an accurate and reliable manner between the “initial” condition at z=1000 revealed by WMAP and the galaxy/quasar distribution at z=0 − 6 surveyed by 2dF and SDSS. In this review, I will summarize what we have learned so far from the previous cosmological simulations, and discuss several remaining problems for the new millennium.


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