Galaxy Formation and Cosmology

Andrew J. Benson
California Institute of Technology
Astronomy Department

The rapid progress in observational measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background means that we now understand  the global structure and matter content of the Universe to good precision. One of the main goals of cosmology now is to understand how those anisotropies grow into the objects we see in the Universe today, namely galaxies. I will describe how our understanding of galaxy formation as a cosmological process is progressing, highlighting recent results in the areas of galaxy clustering and the origins of dwarf galaxies and will examine the possible existence of dark galaxies.