Université de GenèveDépartement de Physique ThéoriqueCAP Genève

Large-scale structure

Observations of the Universe show that, on megaparsec scales galaxies are not distributed homogeneously but rather arranged in a filamentary network, the most luminous of them residing at the nodes of this "cosmic web". In current cosmological models, the large-scale structure of the Universe is the result of tiny fluctuations generated during an inflationary phase and subsequently amplified by gravity. As these fluctuations grew nonlinearly, the baryons fell into the potential wells created by some unknown "cold" (non-relativistic) dark matter component to form stars and galaxies. Because the physics describing the nonlinear stage of galaxy formation is highly complex, numerical simulations have become an absolute must to study the large-scale distribution of galaxies. These simulations can follow the nonlinear collapse of baryons and dark matter over a large dynamical range.   

The large-scale structure of the Universe can strongly constrain viable cosmological scenarios. Weak lensing (distortions in the image of background galaxies induced by the matter distributed along the line-of-sight), galaxy clustering (number of galaxy pairs, triplets etc. in excess of random) and cluster counts (abundance of massive cluster of galaxies) are among the most powerful probes of the large-scale structure. When combined, they can shed light on the mystery of dark energy, the nature of dark matter and the origin of the Universe and its initial conditions.

Recent publications and presentations on this topic
Date: 26. March 2024
Members involved: Benjamin Bose, Lucas Lombriser
Topics: Non-linear Power Spectrum, Modified gravity, Dark energy, Large-scale structure, Massive neutrinos, baryonic feedback, Neural Networks
Type: Publication
Date: 6. November 2023
Members involved: Goran Jelic-Cizmek, Francesco Sorrenti, Camille Bonvin, Ruth Durrer, Martin Kunz, Lucas Lombriser
Topics: Large-scale structure, cosmological parameters, Euclid Collaboration
Type: Publication
Date: 17. October 2023
Members involved: Davide Piras, Lucas Lombriser
Topics: Large-scale structure, Dark energy, Non-linear Power Spectrum, Machine Learning
Type: Publication
Date: 6. July 2023
Members involved: Lawrence Dam, Camille Bonvin
Topics: Large-scale structure, Relativistic aspects of cosmology, Galaxy clustering
Type: Publication
Date: 29. June 2023
Members involved: Lucas Lombriser
Topics: General relativity, Cosmological Constant Problem, Large-scale structure
Type: Publication
Date: 14. March 2022
Members involved: Azadeh Moradinezhad
Topics: Contribution to Snowmass 2021, Line Intensity Mapping, Large-scale structure
Type: Publication
Date: 29. November 2021
Members involved: Benjamin Bose, Lucas Lombriser
Topics: Dark energy, Dark matter, Massive neutrinos, baryonic feedback, Large-scale structure, Non-linearities
Type: Publication
Date: 27. May 2021
Members involved: Benjamin Bose, Lucas Lombriser
Topics: Large-scale structure, Massive neutrinos, baryonic feedback, Modified gravity, Dark energy, Non-linearities, Halo Model
Type: Publication
Date: 9. February 2021
Members involved: Camille Bonvin, Daniel Sobral Blanco
Topics: Anisotropic stress, Relativistic effects, Large-scale structure
Type: Publication
Date: 9. December 2020
Members involved: Michele Mancarella, Joe Kennedy, Benjamin Bose, Lucas Lombriser
Topics: Large-scale structure, Neural Networks, Dark energy, Modified gravity, Machine Learning
Type: Publication

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Département de Physique Théorique
Université de Genève
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