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Register a new userThe Challenge of the Largest Structures in the Universe to Cosmology
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Large galaxy redshift surveys have long been used to constrain cosmological models and structure formation scenarios. In particular, the largest structures discovered observationally are thought to carry critical information on the amplitude of large-scale density fluctuations or homogeneity of the universe, and have often challenged the standard cosmological framework. The Sloan Great Wall (SGW) recently found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) region casts doubt on the concordance cosmological model with a cosmological constant (i.e. the flat LCDM model). Here we show that the existence of the SGW is perfectly consistent with the LCDM model, a result that only our very large cosmological N-body simulation (the Horizon Run 2, HR2) could supply. In addition, we report on the discovery of a void complex in the SDSS much larger than the SGW, and show that such size of the largest void is also predicted in the LCDM paradigm. Our results demonstrate that an initially homogeneous isotropic universe with primordial Gaussian random phase density fluctuations growing in accordance with the General Relativity, can explain the richness and size of the observed large-scale structures in the SDSS. Using the HR2 simulation we predict that a future galaxy redshift survey about four times deeper or with 3 magnitude fainter limit than the SDSS should reveal a largest structure of bright galaxies about twice as big as the SGW.
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The study of the Universe on ultra-large scales is one of the major science cases for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA will be able to probe a vast volume of the cosmos, thus representing a unique instrument, amongst next-generation cosmological experiments, for scrutinising the Universes properties on the largest cosmic scales. Probing cosmic structures on extremely large scales will have many advantages. For instance, the growth of perturbations is well understood for those modes, since it falls fully within the linear regime. Also, such scales are unaffected by the poorly understood feedback of baryonic physics. On ultra-large cosmic scales, two key effects become significant: primordial non-Gaussianity and relativistic corrections to cosmological observables. Moreover, if late-time acceleration is driven not by dark energy but by modifications to general relativity, then such modifications should become apparent near and above the horizon scale. As a result, the SKA is forecast to deliver transformational constraints on non-Gaussianity and to probe gravity on super-horizon scales for the first time.
Research over the past three decades has revolutionized the field of cosmology while supporting the standard cosmological model. However, the cosmological principle of Universal homogeneity and isotropy has always been in question, since structures as large as the survey size have always been found as the survey size has increased. Until now, the largest known structure in our Universe is the Sloan Great Wall (SGW), which is more than 400 Mpc long and located approximately one billion light-years away. Here we report the discovery of a structure at least six times larger than the Sloan Great Wall that is suggested by the distribution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic explosions in the Universe. They are associated with the stellar endpoints of massive stars and are found in and near distant galaxies. Therefore, they are very good indicators of the dense part of the Universe containing normal matter. As of July 2012, 283 GRB redshifts have been measured. If one subdivides this GRB sample into nine radial parts and compares the sky distributions of these subsamples (each containing 31 GRBs), one can observe that the fourth subsample (1.6 < z < 2.1) differs significantly from the others in that many of the GRBs are concentrated in the same angular area of the sky. Using the two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the significance of this observation is found to be less than 0.05 per cent. Fourteen out of the 31 Gamma-Ray Bursts in this redshift band are concentrated in approximately 1/8 of the sky. The binomial probability to find such a deviation is p=0.0000055. This huge structure lies ten times farther away than the Sloan Great Wall, at a distance of approximately ten billion light-years. The size of the structure defined by these GRBs is about 2000-3000 Mpc, or more than six times the size of the largest known object (SGW) in the Universe.
A precise measurement of the curvature of the Universe is of primeval importance for cosmology since it could not only confirm the paradigm of primordial inflation but also help in discriminating between different early Universe scenarios. The recent observations, while broadly consistent with a spatially flat standard $Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter ($Lambda$CDM) model, are showing tensions that still allow (and, in some cases, even suggest) a few percent deviations from a flat universe. In particular, the Planck Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra, assuming the nominal likelihood, prefer a closed universe at more than 99% confidence level. While new physics could be in action, this anomaly may be the result of an unresolved systematic error or just a statistical fluctuation. However, since a positive curvature allows a larger age of the Universe, an accurate determination of the age of the oldest objects provides a smoking gun in confirming or falsifying the current flat $Lambda$CDM model.
The understanding of the primordial mechanism that seeded the cosmic structures we observe today in the sky is one of the major goals in cosmology. The leading paradigm for such a mechanism is provided by the inflationary scenario, a period of violent accelerated expansion in the very early stages of evolution of the Universe. While our current knowledge of the physics of inflation is limited to phenomenological models which fit observations, an exquisite understanding of the particle content and interactions taking place during inflation would provide breakthroughs in our understanding of fundamental physics at high energies. In this review, we summarize recent theoretical progress in the modelling of the imprint of primordial interactions in the large scale structures of the Universe. We focus specifically on the effects of such interactions on the statistical distribution of dark matter halos, providing a consistent treatment of the steps required to connect the correlations generated among fields during inflation all the way to the late-time correlations of halos.
Recent simulations of the densest portion of the Corona Borealis supercluster (A2061, A2065, A2067, and A2089) have shown virtually no possibility of extended gravitationally bound structure without inter-cluster matter (Pearson & Batuski). In contrast, recent analyses of the dynamics found that the clusters had significant peculiar velocities towards the supercluster centroid (Batiste & Batuski). In this paper we present the results of a thorough investigation of the CSC: we determine redshifts and virial masses for all 8 clusters associated with the CSC; repeat the analysis of Batiste & Batuski with the inclusion of A2056 and CL1529+29; estimate the mass of the supercluster by applying the virial theorem on the supercluster scale (e.g. Small et al.), the caustics method (e.g. Reisenegger et al.), and a new procedure using the spherical collapse model (SCM) with the results of the dynamical analysis (SCM+FP); and perform a series of simulations to assess the likelihood of the CSC being a gravitationally bound supercluster. We find that the mass of the CSC is between 0.6 and 12 x 10^{16} h^{-1} M_{sun}. The dynamical analysis, caustics method and the SCM+FP indicate that the structure is collapsing, with the latter two both indicating a turn around radius of about 12.5 h^{-1} Mpc. Lastly, the simulations show that with a reasonable amount of inter-cluster mass, there is likely extended bound structure in the CSC. Our results suggest that A2056, A2061, A2065, A2067, and A2089 form a gravitationally bound supercluster.
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