Related papers: General and consistent statistics for cosmological…
The spatial distribution of galaxies we observed is subject to the given condition that we, human beings are sitting right in a galaxy -- the Milky Way. Thus the ergodicity assumption is questionable in interpretation of the observed galaxy…
This article briefly summarizes the increasingly precise observational estimates of the cosmological parameters. After three years on the stump, the Lambda-CDM model is still the leading candidate. Although the Universe is expanding, our…
Many recent studies have demonstrated that scaling arguments, such as the so-called hierarchical {\em ansatz}, are extremely useful in understanding the statistical properties of weak gravitational lensing. This is especially true on small…
We compute trivariate probability distributions in the landscape, scanning simultaneously over the cosmological constant, the primordial density contrast, and spatial curvature. We consider two different measures for regulating the…
Many extensions of the Standard Model predict large numbers of additional unstable particles whose decays in the early universe are tightly constrained by observational data. For example, the decays of such particles can alter the ratios of…
Over the last decades, observations with increasing quality have revolutionized our understanding of the general properties of the Universe. Questions posed for millenia by mankind about the origin, evolution and structure of the cosmos…
The quantum field theory prediction of the cosmological constant is 120 orders of magnitude higher than the observed value. This is known as the cosmological constant problem. Here, we deal with the cosmological constant as a scalar field…
The averaging problem in cosmology is of considerable importance for the correct interpretation of cosmological data. A rigorous mathematical definition of averaging in a cosmological model is necessary. In general, a spacetime is…
We lay out a general framework for calculating the variation of a set of cosmological observables, down the past null cone of an arbitrarily placed observer, in a given arbitrary inhomogeneous metric. The observables include redshift,…
We study the optimal use of third order statistics in the analysis of weak lensing by large-scale structure. These higher order statistics have long been advocated as a powerful tool to break measured degeneracies between cosmological…
The ability to obtain reliable point estimates of model parameters is of crucial importance in many fields of physics. This is often a difficult task given that the observed data can have a very high number of dimensions. In order to…
The advent of large data-set in cosmology has meant that in the past 10 or 20 years our knowledge and understanding of the Universe has changed not only quantitatively but also, and most importantly, qualitatively. Cosmologists rely on data…
The Universe is not isotropic or spatially homogeneous on local scales. The averaging of local inhomogeneities in general relativity can lead to significant dynamical effects on the evolution of the Universe, and even if the effects are at…
Galaxy redshift surveys are subject to incompleteness and inhomogeneous sampling due to the various constraints inherent to spectroscopic observations. This can introduce systematic errors on the summary statistics of interest, which need…
We challenge the widely held belief that the cosmological principle is an obvious consequence of the observed isotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation, combined with the Copernican principle. We perform a detailed analysis of a…
Theoretical descriptions of observable quantities in cosmological perturbation theory should be independent of coordinate systems. This statement is often referred to as gauge-invariance of observable quantities, and the sanity of their…
A new method for analyzing point patterns produced by the evolution of gravitational clustering is presented. The method is taken from the study of molecular liquids, where it has been introduced for making a statistical description of…
Third-order weak lensing statistics are a promising tool for cosmological analyses since they extract cosmological information in the non-Gaussianity of the cosmic large-scale structure. However, such analyses require precise and accurate…
Homogeneity is a crucial, but poorly tested, assumption in cosmology. We introduce a new approach which allows us to place limits on the presence of localized structures within essentially our entire observable volume, using cosmic…
In this paper, we describe the first steps towards fully non-perturbative cosmology. We explain why the conventional methods used by cosmologists based on the ADM formulation are generally inadequate for this purpose and why it is…