Cosmological Perturbation Theory and Structure Formation

TL;DR

This paper provides an overview of cosmological perturbation theory and structure formation, covering theoretical foundations, initial fluctuation evolution, observational signatures, and numerical simulation methods.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive review of the theoretical and computational tools used to understand cosmic structure formation, integrating perturbation theory with observational data and simulations.

Findings

Relativistic perturbation theory with scalar-vector-tensor decomposition explained.

Evolution of initial fluctuations and their impact on microwave background anisotropies analyzed.

Introduction to numerical simulation methods for structure formation provided.

Abstract

These lecture notes discuss several topics in the physics of cosmic structure formation starting from the evolution of small-amplitude fluctuations in the radiation-dominated era. The topics include relativistic cosmological perturbation theory with the scalar-vector-tensor decomposition, the evolution of adiabatic and isentropic initial fluctuations, microwave background anisotropy, spatial and angular power spectra, the cold dark matter linear transfer function, Press-Schechter theory, and a brief introduction to numerical simulation methods.