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Cosmic structure formation on small scales: From non-linear galaxy clustering to the interstellar medium

Wibking, Benjamin Douglas
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3175-2291
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1561556033289855

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Astronomy.
In the first chapter of this dissertation, we investigate the dynamical influence of starlight from massive stars in regulating the vertical motions of gas and stars in star-forming disk galaxies. The transfer of momentum from photons emitted from massive stars to interstellar dust grains may effectively provide a pressure to support the disk against gravitational collapse. This possibility is analyzed in quantitative detail with both perturbative and numerical methods. In the remaining chapters of this dissertation, the small-scale cosmic structure on scales comparable and somewhat larger to that of dark matter halos is examined. Precise and accurate modeling of the combined gravitational lensing signal around galaxies and the correlation function of galaxy positions can be used to enable tests of the reigning cosmological model of our Universe, the cold dark matter model augmented with a cosmological constant within the framework of General Relativity. We consider the most massive known galaxies in the Universe, commonly known to astronomers as luminous red galaxies. We test our model of the spatial correlations of these galaxies on synthetic data, showing that we can recover the input cosmological parameters in an unbiased manner, and we apply our analysis framework to a sample of luminous red galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Our analysis indicates a statistically significant discrepancy in the amplitude of matter fluctuations inferred from our dataset compared to that inferred by the cosmic microwave background fluctuations measured by the Planck satellite. However, modeling uncertainties in the spatial distribution of galaxies relative to their dark matter halos as well as the possibility of neutrino physics altering our inference of this amplitude preclude our ability to draw conclusions about the cosmological model or the applicability of General Relativity on cosmological scales.
David Weinberg (Advisor)
259 p.
Astronomy; Astrophysics; Fluid Dynamics
cosmology; weak gravitational lensing; large scale structure of the universe; interstellar dust; fluid dynamics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wibking, B. D. (2019). Cosmic structure formation on small scales: From non-linear galaxy clustering to the interstellar medium [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1561556033289855

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wibking, Benjamin. Cosmic structure formation on small scales: From non-linear galaxy clustering to the interstellar medium. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1561556033289855.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wibking, Benjamin. "Cosmic structure formation on small scales: From non-linear galaxy clustering to the interstellar medium." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1561556033289855

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1561556033289855
244
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.