Statistical Physics for Cosmic Structures

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XV

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      Pages 1-23

3. Statistical Methods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. Uniform and Correlated Mass Density Fields

      Pages 27-72

   3. The Power Spectrum and the Classification of Stationary Stochastic Fields

      Pages 73-99

   4. Fractals

      Pages 101-142

   5. Multifractals and Mass Distributions

      Pages 143-163

4. Applications to Cosmology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

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   2. Fluctuations in Standard Cosmological Models: A Real Space View

      Pages 167-191

   3. Discrete Representation of Fluctuations in Cosmological Models

      Pages 193-217

   4. Galaxy Surveys: An Introduction to Their Analysis

      Pages 219-233

   5. Characterizing the Observed Distribution of Visible Matter I: The Conditional Average Density in Galaxy Catalogs

      Pages 235-263

   6. Characterizing the Observed Distribution of Visible Matter II: Number Counts and Their Fluctuations

      Pages 265-289

   7. Luminosity in Galaxy Correlations

      Pages 291-297

   8. The Distribution of Galaxy Clusters

      Pages 299-311

   9. Biasing a Gaussian Random Field and the Problem of Galaxy Correlations

      Pages 313-333

   10. The Gravitational Field in Stochastic Particle Distributions

       Pages 335-361

5. Back Matter

   Pages 363-424

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This book has its roots in a series of collaborations in the last decade at the interface between statistical physics and cosmology. The speci?c problem which initiated this research was the study of the clustering properties of galaxies as revealed by large redshift surveys, a context in which concepts of modern statistical physics (e. g. scale-invariance, fractality. . ) ?nd ready application. In recent years we have considerably broadened the range of problems in cosmology which we have addressed, treating in particular more theoretical issues about the statistical properties of standard cosmological models. What is common to all this research, however, is that it is informed by a perspective and methodology which is that of statistical physics. We can say that, beyond its speci?c scienti?c content, this book has an underlying thesis: such interdisciplinary research is an exciting playground for statistical physics, and one which can bring new and useful insights into cosmology. Thebook does not represent a ?nal point, but in our view, a marker in the development of this kind of research, which we believe can go very much further in the future. Indeed as we complete this book, new developments - which unfortunately we have not been able to include here - have been made on some of the themes described here. Our focus in this book is on the problem of structure in cosmology.

• Complex Systems
• Cosmological Models
• Distribution of Galaxy Clusters
• Fractal Algorithms
• Fractals
• Galaxy
• Galaxy Survey
• Gravity
• Multifractal
• Stationary Stochastic Fields
• Statistical Methods
• statistical physics

From the reviews:

"Any book on an interdisciplinary subject must build up a self-consistent theory able to explain a great number of observations. The concepts introduced must be pertinent for the phenomena in question and sufficiently elaborated in order to extract solid conclusions in an clear and concise way. These requirements have been perfectly fulfilled in the material presented in this book. … the book is highly recommendable due to the insight it gives into the field of cosmic structures, providing sound basis for further research." (J. M. Rubi, Journal of Statistical Physics, 2006)

• Statistical Mechanics and Complexity Center - INFM c/o Dipartimento di Fisica, Università “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy

  Andrea Gabrielli

• Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Université de Paris XI, Orsay Cedex, France

  Francesco Sylos Labini

• Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et des Hautes Energies, Université de Paris VI, Paris Cedex 05, France

  Michael Joyce

• Dipartimento di Fisica, Università “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy

  Luciano Pietronero

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