Related papers: Cosmological Voids: Observational Evidence and Mod…
Voids form a prominent aspect of the Megaparsec distribution of galaxies and matter. Not only do they represent a key constituent of the Cosmic Web, they also are one of the cleanest probes and measures of global cosmological parameters.…
The spatial arrangement of galaxies (of satellites on a scale of 100kpc) as well as their three-dimensional distribution in galaxy groups such as the Local Group (on a scale of 1Mpc), the distribution of galaxies in the nearby volume of…
A short review about vacuum energy and the cosmological constant is presented. The observed acceleration of the universe introduces a new meV energy scale. The problem is that, theoretically, the predicted vacuum energy is many orders of…
We compute the bulk motions of cosmic voids, using a $\Lambda$CDM numerical simulation considering the mean velocities of the dark matter inside the void itself and that of the haloes in the surrounding shell. We find coincident values of…
According to the cosmological principle, Universal large-scale structure is homogeneous and isotropic. The observable Universe, however, shows complex structures even on very large scales. The recent discoveries of structures significantly…
The last 20 years have seen an explosion in our understanding of the large-scale distribution and motions of galaxies in the nearby universe. The field has moved from a largely qualitative, morphological description of the structures seen…
The distribution of galaxies up to a distance of 200 Mpc (650 million light-years) is flat and shows a structure like a shell roughly centered on the Local Supercluster (Virgo cluster). This result clearly confirms the existence of the…
We compare the evolution of voids formed under the standard cosmological model and two alternative cosmological models. The two models are a quintessence model ($\phi$CDM) and a Coupled Dark Matter-Dark Energy (CDE) model, both of which…
Whether we live in a spatially finite universe, and what its shape and size may be, are among the fundamental long-standing questions in cosmology. These questions of topological nature have become particularly topical, given the wealth of…
We investigate the formation, growth, merger history, movement, and destruction of cosmic voids detected via the watershed transform code VIDE in a cosmological N-body dark matter {\Lambda}CDM simulation. By adapting a method used to…
This article reviews the prevailing paradigm for how galaxies and larger structures formed in the universe: gravitational instability. Basic observational facts are summarized to motivate the standard cosmological framework underlying most…
Rich clusters of galaxies, the largest virialized systems known, provide a powerful tool for the study of cosmology. Some of the fundamental questions that can be addressed with clusters of galaxies include: how did galaxies and large-scale…
The intrinsic alignments of galaxies, i.e., the correlation between galaxy shapes and their environment, are a major source of contamination for weak gravitational lensing surveys. Most studies of intrinsic alignments have so far focused on…
We develop a method to identify cosmic voids from the matter density field by adopting a physically-motivated concept that voids are the counterpart of massive clusters. To prove the concept we use a pair of $\Lambda$CDM simulations, a…
The suggestion that we occupy a privileged position near the centre of a large, nonlinear, and nearly spherical void has recently attracted much attention as an alternative to dark energy. Putting aside the philosophical problems with this…
Cosmic voids are increasingly recognized as a promising tool for cosmological exploration. Their distribution and density profiles are highly responsive to alterations in gravitational theories, along with the influences of dark energy and…
We present a class of general prolate and oblate spheroidal spacetimes for the description of cosmic structures in the Universe. They are exact geometries which represent, in an appropriated way, the imbedding of spheroidal matter-energy…
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…
We study the possibility that the universe has compact topologies T^3, T^2 x R^1, or S^1 x R^2 using the seven-year WMAP data. The maximum likelihood 95% confidence intervals for the size L of the compact direction are 1.7 < L/L_0 < 2.1,…
Voids are parts of the cosmic web least affected by non-linearities and baryonic feedback. We thus calculate the sensitivity of voids to the nature of dark matter (DM), using ultra-light axions as a concrete model and the ongoing Dark…