Related papers: What can we learn from VIRMOS quasars?

A data Tsunami is overwhelming Astronomy. This wave is affecting all aspects of our field, revolutionizing not just the type of scientific questions being asked, but the very nature of how the answers are uncovered. In this invited…

The next decade promises an observational revolution which will change cosmology forever. The precise measurement of the angular anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background should specify to a few percent all of the parameters of the…

We review observational tests for the homogeneity of the Universe on large scales. Redshift and peculiar velocity surveys, radio sources, the X-Ray Background, the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest and the Cosmic Microwave Background are used to set…

We review cosmological inference from galaxy surveys at low and high redshifts, with emphasis on new Southern sky surveys. We focus on several issues: (i) The importance of understanding selection effects in catalogues and matching Northern…

We discuss the possibility of performing blind surveys to detect large-scale features of the universe using 21cm emission. Using instruments with approx. 5'-10' resolution currently in the planning stage, it should be possible to detect…

I review the observations of gravitationally lensed quasars. These systems are important because they allow us to probe the properties of the lensing galaxies at various scales, and they also allow insights into the structures of the…

Galaxy redshift surveys are designed to map cosmic structures in three dimensions for large-scale structure studies. Nevertheless, limitations due to sampling and the survey window are unavoidable and degrade the cosmological constraints.…

Cosmic voids, the less dense patches of the Universe, are promising laboratories to extract cosmological information. Thanks to their unique low density character, voids are extremely sensitive to diffuse components such as neutrinos and…

We describe the execution and data reduction of the European Southern Observatory Large Programme "Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift universe with VLT/XSHOOTER" (hereafter `XQ-100'). XQ-100 has…

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are ideal sources for multi-wavelength studies as their emission can cover almost 20 orders of magnitude in frequency from the radio to the gamma-ray band. After reviewing their basic properties, I will assess…

Studies of weak gravitational lensing by large-scale structures require the measurement of the distortions introduced to the shapes of distant galaxies at the few percent level by anisotropic light deflection along the line of sight. To…

The BeppoSAX 4.5-10 keV High Energy Large Area Survey has covered about 80 square degrees of sky down to a flux of F(5-10keV)~5E-14 cgs. Optical spectroscopic identification of about half of the sources in the sample (62) shows that many…

We present results of surveys for high redshift galaxies selected by their having produced detectable Mg~II and Lyman limit absorption in the spectra of background QSOs. We discuss the properties of the absorbing galaxies, the connection…

We highlight the potential benefits of a synergistic use of SKAO and ESO facilities for galaxy evolution studies, focusing on the role that ESO spectroscopic surveys can play in supporting next-generation radio continuum and atomic hydrogen…

Using a sample of over 25000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we show how quasar variability in the rest frame optical/UV regime depends upon rest frame time lag, luminosity, rest wavelength, redshift,…

Weak gravitational lensing surveys are rapidly becoming important tools to probe directly the mass density fluctuations in the universe and its background dynamics. Earlier studies have shown that it is possible to model the statistics of…

Abstract Covariance matrix estimation is a challenging problem in cosmology. Recent work has shown that model covariance matrices can be precise, and that at relatively large scales they can also be accurate. We introduce a data-driven…

ALHAMBRA is a project to gather data to sample a fraction of the Universe with enough precision to follow the evolution of its content and properties with z, a kind of Cosmic Tomography. It is defined as a 4 square degrees photometric…

For more that seventy years, the measurements of fluxes of galaxies at different wavelengths and derived colours have been used to estimate their corresponding cosmological distances. From the fields of galaxy and AGN evolution to precision…

Our knowledge of the Galaxy is being revolutionised by a series of photometric, spectroscopic and astrometric surveys. Already an enormous body of data is available from completed surveys, and data of ever increasing quality and richness…