Abstract
Observations of how matter is distributed on different length scales in the universe are an important test of cosmological models. For example, such observations can give an upper limit for the mass of neutrinos: As the portion of dark matter consisting of neutrinos increases, less structure on smaller scales may be observed. One of the most frequently used methods for measuring the large-scale matter distribution is to measure the statistical distribution of galaxies in the local universe. These redshift surveys have currently measured the position and redshift of hundreds of thousands of galaxies, with many more to come in the future.
One potential problem with this method is that it is based on the matter we can see, while what one really is interested in is the distribution of both dark and luminous matter combined. If these two components have the same statistical distribution, then there are no problems with using measurements on observed galaxies only. Still, it seems that they are unevenly distributed on different length scales. The relationship between the distributions of the dark and luminous matter is called the bias factor, and it is difficult to estimate theoretically. There is, however, a simple model - the so-called halo model - where this bias can be taken into account. It is a picture where linear and non-linear correlations are described separately.
The thesis gives an introduction to the halo model and the concepts behind it. With this model, the effects of massive neutrinos on large-scale structure are investigated, and whether these effects can be regarded as interesting with respect to the linear case.