1994/08/18 by David H Lyth, Lyth, David H, Andrew R Liddle +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9408066
36 pages, standard LaTeX plus three uuencoded postscript figures, SUSSEX-AST 94/8-2
arxiv created 1994/08/18 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
The standard model of large scale structure is considered, in which the structure originates as a Gaussian adiabatic density perturbation with a nearly scale invariant spectrum. The basic theoretical tool of cosmological perturbation theory is described, as well as the possible origin of the density perturbation as a vacuum fluctuation during inflation. Then, after normalising the spectrum to fit the cosmic microwave background anisotropy measured by COBE, some versions of the standard model are compared with a variety of data coming from observations of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The recent COBE analysis of Górski and collaborators is used, which gives a significantly higher normalization than earlier ones. The comparison with galaxy and cluster data is done using linear theory, supplemented by the Press-Schechter formula when discussing object abundances of rich clusters and of damped Lyman alpha systems. By focussing on the smoothed density contrast as a function of scale, the observational data can be conveniently illustrated on a single figure, facilitating easy comparison with theory. The spectral index is constrained to 0.6<n<1.1, and in particle physics motivated models that predict significant gravitational waves the lower limit is tightened to 0.8. [To appear, Proceedings of Journee Cosmologie, Paris, June 1994]