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We have made the largest-volume measurement to date of the transition to large-scale homogeneity in the distribution of galaxies. We use the WiggleZ survey, a spectroscopic survey of over 200,000 blue galaxies in a cosmic volume of ~1…
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…
The quasar sample of the fourteenth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV DR14) is used to determine the cosmic homogeneity scale in the redshift range $0.80<z<2.24$. We divide the sample into 4 redshift bins, each one with…
The properties of the galaxy distribution at large scales are usually studied using statistics which are assumed to be self-averaging inside a given sample. We present a new analysis able to quantitatively map galaxy large scale structures…
According to the cosmological principle, galaxy cluster sizes and cluster densities, when averaged over sufficiently large volumes of space, are expected to be constant everywhere, except for a slow variation with look-back time (redshift).…
We search for the most suitable set of cosmological parameters that describes the observable universe. The search includes the possibility of quintessential flat universes, i.e., the analysis is restricted to the determination of the…
The assumption that the Universe, on sufficiently large scales, is homogeneous and isotropic is crucial to our current understanding of cosmology. In this paper we test if the observed galaxy distribution is actually homogeneous on large…
We trace the cosmic web at redshifts 1.0 <= z <= 1.8 using the quasar data from the SDSS DR7 QSO catalogue (Schneider et al. 2010). We apply a friend-of-friend (FoF) algorithm to the quasar and random catalogues to determine systems at a…
The BOSS quasar sample is used to study cosmic homogeneity with a 3D survey in the redshift range $2.2<z<2.8$. We measure the count-in-sphere, $N(<\! r)$, i.e. the average number of objects around a given object, and its logarithmic…
Some years ago we proposed a new approach to the analysis of galaxy and cluster correlations based on the concepts and methods of modern statistical Physics. This led to the surprising result that galaxy correlations are fractal and not…
We analyze the SDSS DR12 quasar catalogue to test the large-scale smoothness in the quasar distribution. We quantify the degree of inhomogeneity in the quasar distribution using information theory based measures and find that the degree of…
We present a statistical analysis of a sample of 20 strong lensing clusters drawn from the Local Cluster Substructure Survey (LoCuSS), based on high resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the cluster cores and follow-up spectroscopic…
In this study, we probe the transition to cosmic homogeneity in the Large Scale Structure (LSS) of the Universe using the CMASS galaxy sample of BOSS spectroscopic survey which covers the largest effective volume to date, $3\ h^{-3}\…
We investigate the clustering properties of 45441 radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) and 3493 radio-loud quasars (RLQs) drawn from a joint use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Faint Images of the Radio Sky at 20 cm (FIRST) surveys in the…
We present a pipeline based on a random forest classifier for the identification of high column-density clouds of neutral hydrogen (i.e. the Lyman limit systems, LLSs) in absorption within large spectroscopic surveys of z>3 quasars. We test…
The cosmic dipole anomaly -- the observation of a significant mismatch between the dipole observed in the matter distribution and that expected given the kinematic interpretation of the cosmic microwave background dipole -- poses a serious…
In the past few decades, large universal structures have been found that challenge the homogeneity and isotropy expected in standard cosmological models. The largest of these, identified as the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, was found…
Quasars (QSOs) hosting supermassive black holes are believed to reside in massive halos harboring galaxy overdensities. However, many observations revealed average or low galaxy densities around $z\gtrsim6$ QSOs. This could be partly…
Some years ago we proposed a new approach for the analysis of galaxy and cluster correlations based on the concepts and methods of modern statistical physics. This led to the surprising result that galaxy correlations are fractal and not…
We study the cosmic web at redshifts 1.0 <= z <= 1.8 using quasar systems based on quasar data from the SDSS DR7 QSO catalogue. Quasar systems were determined with a friend-of-friend (FoF) algorithm at a series of linking lengths. At the…