The Distribution of the Galaxies: Gravitational Clustering in Cosmology

Description

Contemporary astronomers continue to search for ways to understand the irregular distribution of galaxies in our Universe. This volume describes gravitational theory, computer simulations and observations related to galaxy distribution functions, which is a general method for measuring the distribution of galaxies and their motions. Coverage embeds distribution functions in a broader astronomical context, and includes other contemporary topics such as correlation functions, fractals, bound clusters, topology, percolation and minimal spanning trees. Throughout, theory, computer simulation and observation are carefully interwoven and critically compared, and key results are derived and the necessary gravitational physics provided. The book also shows how future observations can test the theoretical models for the evolution of galaxy clustering at early times in our Universe. This clear and authoritative volume is written at a level suitable for graduate students, and will be of key interest to astronomers, cosmologists, physicists and applied statisticians.

'The students should listen to this author and closely study his work.' Irish Astronomical Journal '... the approach does a great deal to make difficult ideas accessible ... I enjoyed reading this book and hope that it will bring Saslaw's ideas to a wider audience and establish their true significance.' David Matravers, General Relativity and Gravitation 'From the title of the book one could get the impression that it represents nothing but one of those many in the astrophysical literature describing the observations of galaxies and the methods to get these results. However, the present book is also mathematically well-founded, and even if one is not at all interested in any results on the distribution of galaxies, this book is worth being consulted.' H.-J. Schmidt, Zentralblatt fur Mathematik '... can be highly recommended to researchers at graduate student level and above as a near-definitive treatise on the application of distribution functions to cosmology.' J. Loveday, Contemporary Physics