LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF GALAXIES AS A PROBE OF COSMOLOGICAL MODELS

The seeds of today's distribution of galaxies and clusters were plante d very early in the history of the Universe. Studying the large-scale structure apparent in this distribution can therefore be used as a pro be of cosmological parameters such as the mass density and the nature of the dark matter. the past 20 years have seen an explosion in our un derstanding of the large-scale distribution and motions of galaxies in the nearby Universe. The field has moved from a largely qualitative, morphological description of the structures seen in the galaxy distrib ution, to a rich and increasingly rigorous statistical description. Th e study of the evolution of large-scale structure with time is now bec oming feasible.