Lectures delivered at the 2002 Tenerife Winter School,
"Dark matter and dark energy in the universe"
astro-ph/0309240
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LARGE-SCALE SURVEYS AND COSMIC STRUCTURE
J.A. Peacock
Institute for
Astronomy, University
of Edinburgh,
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
Abstract: These lectures deal with our current knowledge of the
matter distribution in the universe, focusing on how this is studied via
the large-scale structure seen in galaxy surveys.
We first assemble the necessary basics needed to
understand the development of density fluctuations in an
expanding universe, and discuss how galaxies are located within
the dark-matter density field. Results from the 2dF
Galaxy Redshift Survey are presented and contrasted with
theoretical models. We show that the combination of large-scale
structure and data on microwave-background anisotropies can
eliminate almost all degeneracies, and yield a completely
specified cosmological model. This is the `concordance' universe:
a geometrically flat combination of vacuum energy and cold dark matter.
The study of cosmic structure is able to establish this in
a manner independent of external information, such as the
Hubble diagram; this extra information can however be used
to limit non-standard alternatives, such as a variable
equation of state for the vacuum.
Table of Contents
PREAMBLE
- The perturbed universe
- Relativistic viewpoint and gauge issues
- NEWTONIAN EQUATIONS OF MOTION
- Matter-dominated universe
- Radiation-dominated universe
- Mészáros effect
- Coupled perturbations
- Transfer functions and characteristic scales
- NONLINEAR EVOLUTION OF COSMIC STRUCTURE
- The Zeldovich approximation
- The spherical model
- N-body models
- STATISTICS OF COSMOLOGICAL DENSITY FIELDS
- Fourier analysis of density fluctuations
- CDM models for structure formation
- COMPARISON WITH 2dFGRS DATA
- Survey overview
- The 2dFGRS power spectrum and CDM models
- Robustness of results
- RELATION OF GALAXIES AND DARK MATTER
- History and general aspects of bias
- The peak-background split
- Observations of biased clustering
- Scale dependence of bias
- The halo model - I: mass
- The Halo model - II: biased galaxy populations
- ANISOTROPIES IN THE CMB
- Anisotropy mechanisms
- Inflationary predictions
- Characteristic scales
- Evolution of CMB data
- MODEL DEGENERACIES INHERENT IN CMB DATA
- Geometrical degeneracy
- Horizon-angle degeneracy
- Tensor degeneracy
- COMBINATION OF THE CMB AND LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE
- Matter fluctuation amplitude and bias
- LESS-STANDARD INGREDIENTS
- Limits to the neutrino mass
- The equation of state of the vacuum
- The total relativistic density
- CONCLUSIONS
- REFERENCES
