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Cosmological observations have shown that on large scales, matter is distributed into high density regions such as galaxies, clusters etc. and low density voids. This pattern of large scale structure (LSS) is believed to have grown from tiny seed fluctuations generated during the inflationary epoch and the growth rate depends sensitively on the cosmological model that describes the overall evolution of the Universe. There are many theoretically proposed cosmological models, and indeed, pinpointing the exact one is one of the main goals of upcoming large scale structure surveys such as the SKA or EUCLID.
In order to compare various theoretical models to the vast amount of data one requires reasonably precise predictions at relatively low computational cost. While numerical simulations can provide accurate answers, they are computationally rather expensive. Given the wide range of phenomenological models, this can become prohibitive and approximate methods are necessary. This talk will focus on two such methods: Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (LPT) and spherical/triaxial collapse. In particular, I will discuss some recent improvements and extensions to the traditional way in which these methods are used. |