Related papers: Studies of Structure Formation and Cosmology with …
Galaxy cluster surveys are power tools for studying the dark energy. In principle, the equation of state parameter w of the dark energy and its time evolution can be extracted from large solid angle, high yield surveys that deliver tens of…
We examine the prospects for measuring the dark energy equation of state parameter w within the context of the still uncertain redshift evolution of galaxy cluster structure. We show that for a particular X-ray survey (SZE survey) the…
In gaussian theories of structure formation, the galaxy cluster abundance is an extremely sensitive probe of the density fluctuation power spectrum and of the density parameter, $\Omega$. We develop this theme by deriving and studying in…
Galaxy cluster surveys provide a powerful means of studying the density and nature of the dark energy. The redshift distribution of detected clusters in a deep, large solid angle SZE or X-ray survey is highly sensitive to the dark energy…
The amount and nature of dark energy (DE) can be tightly constrained by measuring the spatial correlation features and evolution of a sample of ~ 100,000 galaxy clusters over the redshift range 0<z < 1.5. Such an X-ray survey will discover…
Number counts of galaxy clusters offer a very promising probe of the Dark Energy (DE) equation-of-state parameter, $w$. The basic goal is to measure abundances of these objects as a function of redshift, compare this to a theoretical…
Various cosmological applications of galaxy clusters are presented. Clusters are used to determine the baryon fraction, dark matter distribution and the matter density of the universe. They also contain a wealth of information about…
These lectures deal with our current knowledge of the matter distribution in the universe, focusing on how this is studied via the large-scale structure seen in galaxy surveys. We first assemble the necessary basics needed to understand the…
Galaxy redshift surveys are one of the pillars of the current standard cosmological model and remain a key tool in the experimental effort to understand the origin of cosmic acceleration. To this end, the next generation of surveys aim at…
Studies of galaxy clusters have proved crucial in helping to establish the standard model of cosmology, with a universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy. A theoretical basis that describes clusters as massive, multi-component,…
Galaxies form and evolve in the context of their local and large-scale environments. Their baryonic content that we observe with imaging and spectroscopy is intimately connected to the properties of their dark matter halos, and to their…
We study the implications and limitations of galaxy cluster surveys for constraining models of particle physics and gravity beyond the Standard Model. Flux limited cluster counts probe the history of large scale structure formation in the…
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,…
The growth rate of large scale structure can probe whether dark matter clusters at gravitational strength or deviates from this, e.g. due to self interactions. Measurement of the growth rate through redshift space distortions in galaxy…
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in Universe. They are very important as both cosmological probes and astrophysical laboratories. Several methods have been developed to detect galaxy clusters with different techniques (optical,…
In this review, we describe our current understanding of cluster formation: from the general picture of collapse from initial density fluctuations in an expanding Universe to detailed simulations of cluster formation including the effects…
In recent years, significant progress has been made in building new galaxy clusters samples, at low and high redshifts, from wide-area surveys, particularly exploiting the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. A large effort is underway to…
We present XMM-Newton studies of the total mass, gas density, temperature and entropy profiles in nearby hot and cool clusters, together with follow-up observations of distant clusters from the SHARC Survey. The observed structural 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…
Galaxies are not uniformly distributed in space. On large scales the Universe displays coherent structure, with galaxies residing in groups and clusters on scales of ~1-3 Mpc/h, which lie at the intersections of long filaments of galaxies…