Topology of the Universe: motivation for the study of large-scale structure.

The large-scale structure of the Universe has been characterized as spongy, or like isolated clusters, sheets, filaments, cells, bubbles, and other analogs. The use of a computer program to study isodensity surfaces separating over- and under-dense regions can quantify the topology. Gaussian distributions can be distinguished from, for example, bubble distributions using this test. Improved data from redshift surveys and QSO absorption line studies will help test the random phase hypothesis in cosmology.