Cosmology and its large scale probes

Recently, the Planck satellite has measured the fluctuation of the cosmic microwave background to an unprecedented accuracy. This measurement places very tight constraints on the initial condition of our cosmic structure formation, and also on the geometrical properties of our Universe. My talk will first give an introduction to this exciting recent progress. I will then touch on the topics in my own research, which proposes different ways of further probing the cosmic large scale structure. More specifically, I will talk about progresses in three areas, including the theoretical modelling of structure formation, the cosmic dark age, and the weak gravitational lensing.