The large-scale structure of the universe

Abstract

It is argued that the evolution of the universe proceeded from a nearly uniform initial state to a progressively more irregular and clumpy universe. The discussion centers on the clusters of galaxies, the empirical evidence of the nature of clustering, and theories of how the clustering evolves in an expanding universe. A historical introduction to the subject is given; and a survey of methods used to deal with the Newtonian approximation to the theory of the evolution of the mass distribution is presented. Recent progress in the use of statistical measures of the clustering is described; and techniques for dealing with cosmic evolution, in the statistical measures of clustering and under general relativity theory, are considered. An assessment is made of attempts to link theory and observation to arrive at a well-established physical picture of the nature and evolution of the universe.