The growth of structure

Abstract

The growth of structure by gravitational collapse from initially small perturbations is described. The Jeans instability is calculated. The structure equations are obtained and solved in various cases (radiation-dominated, matter-dominated and others) via a linearized treatment. Hence the main features of the growth of density perturbations are obtained. The observed spectrum in the present is used to infer the primordial spectrum. The scale-invariant (Harrison-Zol’dovich) spectrum is described. The process of baryon acoustic oscillations is outlined and the sound horizon is defined. The chapter concludes with brief notes on galaxy formatiom.