Theoretical Tools for Large Scale Structure

Abstract

We review the main theoretical aspects of the structure formation paradigm which impinge upon wide angle surveys: the early universe generation of gravitational metric fluctuations from quantum noise in scalar inflaton fields; the well understood and computed linear regime of CMB anisotropy and large scale structure (LSS) generation; the weakly nonlinear regime, where higher order perturbation theory works well, and where the cosmic web picture operates, describing an interconnected LSS of clusters bridged by filaments, with membranes as the intrafilament webbing. Current CMB+LSS data favour the simplest inflation-based $Λ$CDM models, with a primordial spectral index within about 5% of scale invariant and $Ω_Λ\approx 2/3$, similar to that inferred from SNIa observations, and with open CDM models strongly disfavoured. The attack on the nonlinear regime with a variety of N-body and gas codes is described, as are the excursion set and peak-patch semianalytic approaches to object collapse. The ingredients are mixed together in an illustrative gasdynamical simulation of dense supercluster formation.