Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

The idea that peaks in the initial density fluctuation field may be important at later times has been a sort of guiding principle in most models of hierarchical structure formation for about three decades. I will discuss whether the qualitative insights gained from this model are accurate at percent precision, as well as other features of this model that are particularly relevant in light of recent interest in the possibility that the initial conditions were non-Gaussian and gravity is modified.