Related papers: Cosmological Parameters from Observations of Galax…
Rich clusters of galaxies are the most massive virialized systems known. Even though they contain only a small fraction of all galaxies, rich clusters provide a powerful tool for the study of galaxy formation, dark matter, large-scale…
Even when completely and consistently formulated, a fundamental theory of physics and cosmological boundary conditions may not give unambiguous and unique predictions for the universe we observe; indeed inflation, string/M theory, and…
Surveys of the local and distant Universe are the means to test and improve our models of galaxy formation. Substantial successes in the models are evident, while there is also considerable recent progress in identifying what remains to be…
Globular clusters provide a unique probe of galaxy formation and evolution. Here I briefly summarize the known observational properties of globular cluster systems. One re-occurring theme is that the globular cluster systems of spirals and…
Weak-lensing searches for galaxy clusters are plagued by low completeness and purity, severely limiting their usefulness for constraining cosmological parameters with the cluster mass function. A significant fraction of `false positives'…
This chapter reviews the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to the study of galaxy clusters, covering both theoretical developments and their use as tools to infer cluster properties from a variety of observational…
We generalize the small scale dynamics of the universe by taking into account models with an equation of state which evolves with time, and provide a complete formulation of the cluster virialization attempting to address the nonlinear…
(Abridged) This is the first of a series of papers in which we derive simultaneous constraints on cosmological parameters and X-ray scaling relations using observations of the growth of massive, X-ray flux-selected galaxy clusters. Our data…
(abridged) We use a theoretical model to predict the clustering properties of galaxy clusters. Our technique accounts for past light-cone effects on the observed clustering and follows the non-linear evolution of the dark matter correlation…
An impressive amount of different astrophysical data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing a today phase of accelerated expansion. The nature of the dark energy dominating the energy content of the universe…
The ability to test the nature of dark mass-energy components in the universe through large-scale structure studies hinges on accurate predictions of sky survey expectations within a given world model. Numerical simulations predict key…
Galaxy cluster surveys offer great promise for measuring cosmological parameters, but survey analysis methods have not been widely studied. Using methods developed decades ago for galaxy clustering studies, it is shown that nearly exact…
Future microwave sky surveys will have the sensitivity to detect the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal from moving galaxy clusters, thus providing a direct measurement of their line-of-sight peculiar velocity. We show that cluster peculiar…
We present a method to obtain a high-significance detection of relativistic effects on cosmological scales. Measurements of such effects would be instrumental for our understanding of the Universe, as they would provide a further…
Laboratory experiments, large-scale computer simulations and observational cosmology have begun to make progress in the campaign to identify the particle responsible for gravitationally-inferred dark matter. In this contribution we discuss…
Galaxy clusters furnish extremely rich information on the contents and structure of our universe. The potential of galaxy cluster studies to constrain dark energy, for example, motivates a number of ambitious cluster surveys. Among these,…
Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bounded structures in the Universe dominated by dark matter. We review the observational appearance and physical models of plasma structures in clusters of galaxies. Bubbles of…
Cosmic structures at large scales represent the earliest and most extended form of matter condensation. In this lecture we review the application of the methods and concepts of modern statistical physics to these structures. This leads to a…
Cosmological observations have in the past few years become an increasingly powerful method for determining parameters within the neutrino sector, such as the presence of sterile states and the mass of neutrinos. I review the current status…
Dark matter has been introduced to explain many independent gravitational effects at different astronomical scales, in galaxies, groups of galaxies, clusters, superclusters and even across the full horizon. This review describes the…