Lagrangian Perturbation Approach to the Formation of Large-scale Structure

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The present lecture notes address three columns on which the Lagrangian perturbation approach to cosmological dynamics is based: 1. the formulation of a Lagrangian theory of self--gravitating flows in which the dynamics is described in terms of a single field variable; 2. the procedure, how to obtain the dynamics of Eulerian fields from the Lagrangian picture, and 3. a precise definition of a Newtonian cosmology framework in which Lagrangian perturbation solutions can be studied. While the first is a discussion of the basic equations obtained by transforming the Eulerian evolution and field equations to the Lagrangian picture, the second exemplifies how the Lagrangian theory determines the evolution of Eulerian fields including kinematical variables like expansion, vorticity, as well as the shear and tidal tensors. The third column is based on a specification of initial and boundary conditions, and in particular on the identification of the average flow of an inhomogeneous cosmology with a ``Hubble--flow''. Here, we also look at the limits of the Lagrangian perturbation approach as inferred from comparisons with N--body simulations and illustrate some striking properties of the solutions.