Abstract

Current analysis of large-scale structure data focuses mainly on exploiting the lowest order clustering statistics of the density field — this is mainly due to the fact that the theoretical modelling and data analysis methods are well developed and easier to implement. However, future spectroscopic and photometric surveys of the Universe, just like the CMB sky, will soon become cosmic variance limited on the largest scales where linear physics applies. In that case we are inexorably drawn to utilise smaller scales where nonlinear physics applies. In this talk, I aim to demonstrate that there is in fact a wealth of information locked up in the non-Gaussian signatures of the CDM density field and that one of the challenges for the future will be how best to extract it. I will also review a few new methods that we have been working on at Sussex and will also describe our recent attempts to identify a set of “optimal tools” for doing so.