Dark energy, gravitational lensing and the formation of structure in the Universe

The large-scale structure of the Universe and their statistical properties can reveal many aspects on the physics of the early Universe as well as on its matter and energy content during the cosmic history. The last couple of years has witnessed a rapid growth of results provided by gravitational lensing surveys which proved extremely powerful in mapping matter inhomogeneities at cosmological scales. Such surveys can be used not only to firmly established the existence of dark matter but also to test the existence of a significant dark energy thought to be responsible of the acceleration of the Universe.