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: 28. June 2019
Members involved: Mona Jalilvand, Elisabetta Majerotto, Camille Bonvin, Fabien Lacasa, Martin Kunz
Topics: Large-scale structure, Gravitational lensing, Intensity Mapping
Type: Publication
Date: 7. June 2019
Members involved: Felipe Oliveira, Camille Bonvin
Topics: Large-scale structure, Modified gravity
Type: Publication
Date: 30. October 2018
Members involved: Camille Bonvin
Topics: Large-scale structure, Modified gravity, Dark energy
Type: Publication
Date: 5. October 2018
Members involved: Azadeh Moradinezhad
Topics: primordial non-Gaussianity, Large-scale structure, Line Intensity Mapping
Type: Publication
Date: 26. June 2018
Members involved: Camille Bonvin, Felipe Oliveira
Topics: Large-scale structure, Non-linearities
Type: Publication
Date: 28. May 2018
Members involved: Azadeh Moradinezhad , Gabriele Franciolini, Alexandros Kehagias, Antonio Riotto
Topics: Inflation, Higher-spin, primordial non-Gaussianity, Large-scale structure
Type: Publication
Date: 30. January 2018
Members involved: Azadeh Moradinezhad
Topics: Inflation, primordial non-Gaussianity, Large-scale structure, Line Intensity Mapping
Type: Publication
Date: 22. January 2018
Members involved:
Topics: primordial non-Gaussianity, Higher-spin particles, Large-scale structure
Type: Publication
Date: 7. September 2017
Members involved: Azadeh Moradinezhad
Topics: Large-scale structure, bispectrum, Covariance
Type: Publication
Date: 22. August 2017
Members involved: Azadeh Moradinezhad
Topics: Inflation, primordial non-Gaussianity, Higher-spin particles, Large-scale structure
Type: Publication

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Département de Physique Théorique
Université de Genève
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