The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation as a Probe of The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe

Abstract

Over scales in excess of a few percent of our present horizon, the search for anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation promises to provide unique information on the existence of inhomogeneities in the matter distribution. Anisotropy at some level seems inevitable in any plausible scenario for the origin and evolution of structure in the early Universe. My goal here is to review the implications of galaxy formation theory for the presence of large-scale fluctuations. The dipole and recently discovered quadrupole anisotropy of the microwave background radiation severely constrain such theories. Interesting modifications of the predicted radiation anisotropy arise from the effects of spatial curvature and the possible presence of massive neutrinos.KeywordsMassive NeutrinoDensity FluctuationVirgo ClusterFluctuation SpectrumLocal SuperclusterThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.