Topological Statistics and the LMT Galaxy Redshift Survey

Abstract

The results of numerical simulations are presented which demonstrate that liquid mirror telescope galaxy redshift surveys such as the current UBC-NASA Multi-Narrowband Survey and the future LZT Survey have the potential of discriminating between the predictions of different theories of structure formation. Most of the currently studied theories of structure formation predict a scale-invariant spectrum of primordial perturbations. Therefore, to distinguish between the predictions of the various models, we make use of statistics which are sensitive to non-Gaussian phases, such as the counts in cell statistics, N-galaxy probability functions and Minkowski functionals. It is shown that already the current UBC-NASA survey can clearly differentiate between the predictions of some topological defect theories and those of inflationary Universe models with Gaussian phases.