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Probes of large-scale structure in the Universe

Abstract

Recent progress in observational techniques has made it possible to confront quantitatively various models for the large-scale structure of the Universe with detailed observational data. In particular, there are well–established galaxy–galaxy and cluster-cluster correlations1–3, stringent upper limits on (and one tentative measurement of) the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) on various angular scales4,5, and large-scale bulk motions reported by several groups6–8. These three observables place important constraints on cosmological parameters, most notably the amplitude and shape of the density fluctuation spectrum in the very early Universe. We develop a general formalism to show that the gravitational instability theory for the origin of large-scale structure is now capable of critically confronting observational results on CBR angular anisotropies, large-scale bulk motions and large-scale dumpiness in the galaxy counts.

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Suto, Y., Górski, K., Juszkiewicz, R. et al. Probes of large-scale structure in the Universe. Nature 332, 328–330 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/332328a0

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