The Large Scale Structure in the Universe: From Power-Laws to Acoustic Peaks

Understand

The most popular tools for analysing the large scale distribution of galaxies are second-order spatial statistics such as the two-point correlation function or its Fourier transform, the power spectrum.

• In this review, we explain how our knowledge of cosmic structures, encapsulated by these statistical descriptors, has evolved since their first use when applied on the early galaxy catalogues to the present generation of wide and deep redshift surveys, incorporating the most challenging discovery in the study of the galaxy distribution: the detection of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.