Related papers: Persistent fluctuations in the distribution of gal…
I review the standard paradigm for understanding the formation and evolution of cosmic structure, based on the gravitational instability of dark matter, but many variations on this basic theme are viable. Despite the great progress that has…
We discuss the estimation of galaxy correlation properties in several volume limited samples, in different sky regions, obtained from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The small scale properties are characterized…
A clustering analysis is performed on two samples of $\sim 600$ faint galaxies each, in two widely separated regions of the sky, including the Hubble Deep Field. One of the survey regions is configured so that some galaxy pairs span angular…
I critically discuss in a pedagogical and phenomenological way a few crucial tests challenging the claims by Pietronero and collaborators that there is no evidence from available galaxy catalogues that the Universe is actually homogeneous…
Research done during the previous century established our Standard Cosmological Model. There are many details still to be filled in, but few would seriously doubt the basic premise. Past surveys have revealed that the large-scale…
Three methods for detecting and characterizing structure in point data, such as that generated by redshift surveys, are described: classification using self-organizing maps, segmentation using Bayesian blocks, and density estimation using…
We discuss correlation properties of a general mass density field introducing a classification of structures based on their complexity. Standard cosmological models for primordial mass fluctuations are characterized by a sort of large-scale…
Standard cosmology is based on the assumption that the universe is spatially homogeneous. However the consensus on a homogeneous matter structure, even on very large scales, has never been complete. The advantage of correlation dimension…
The local space density of galaxies as a function of their basic structural parameters --like luminosity, surface brightness and scalesize-- is still poorly known. Our poor knowledge is mainly the result of strong selection biases against…
(abridged) We present a study of the nature and evolution of large-scale structure based on two independent redshift surveys of faint field galaxies conducted with the 176-fiber Norris Spectrograph on the Palomar 200-inch telescope. The two…
I review some results of estimation of the power spectrum of density fluctuations from galaxy redshift surveys and discuss advances that may be possible with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I then examine the realities of power spectrum…
This paper presents an analysis of the smoothness problem in cosmology by focussing on the ambiguities originated in the simplifying hypotheses aimed at observationally verifying if the large-scale distribution of galaxies is homogeneous,…
We present a review of the history and the present state of the fractal approach to the large-scale distribution of galaxies. Angular correlation function was used as a general instrument for the structure analysis. It was realized later…
The assumption that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic on large scales is one of the fundamental postulates of cosmology. We have tested the large scale homogeneity of the galaxy distribution in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data…
We have reconstructed the three-dimensional density fluctuation maps to z ~ 1.5 using the distribution of galaxies observed in the VVDS-Deep survey. We use this overdensity field to measure the evolution of the probability distribution…
We have used a statistical technique "Shuffle" (Bhavsar & Ling 1988; Bharadwaj, Bhavsar & Sheth 2004) in seven nearly two dimensional strips from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Six (SDSS DR6) to test if the statistically…
We show how, based on considerations on the observed form of the galaxy 2-point spatial correlation function xi(r), a very simplified -- yet surprisingly effective -- model for the linear density fluctuations power spectrum can be…
If we treat the galaxies in published redshift catalogues as point sets, we may determine the generalized dimensions of such sets by standard means, outlined here. For galaxy separations up to about 5 Mpc, we find the dimensions of the…
Imaging systematics refers to the inhomogeneous distribution of a galaxy sample caused by varying observing conditions and astrophysical foregrounds. Current mitigation methods correct the galaxy density fluctuations caused by imaging…
This comment is in response to the paper by L. Guzzo recently appeared in ``New Astronomy'' related to our work. The subject of the discussion concerns the correlation properties of galaxy distribution in the available 3-d samples. There is…