Cosmological principle

In modern physical cosmology, the cosmological principle is the notion that the spatial distribution of matter in the universe is homogeneous and isotropic when viewed on a large enough scale, since the forces are expected to act uniformly throughout the universe, and should, therefore, produce no observable irregularities in the large-scale structuring over the course of evolution of the matter field that was initially laid down by the Big Bang.

Definition

Astronomer William Keel explains:

The cosmological principle is usually stated formally as 'Viewed on a sufficiently large scale, the properties of the universe are the same for all observers.' This amounts to the strongly philosophical statement that the part of the universe which we can see is a fair sample, and that the same physical laws apply throughout. In essence, this in a sense says that the universe is knowable and is playing fair with scientists.[1]

The cosmological principle depends on a definition of "observer," and contains an implicit qualification and two testable consequences.

"Observers" means any observer at any location in the universe, not simply any human observer at any location on Earth: as Andrew Liddle puts it, "the cosmological principle [means that] the universe looks the same whoever and wherever you are."[2]

The qualification is that variation in physical structures can be overlooked, provided this does not imperil the uniformity of conclusions drawn from observation: the Sun is different from the Earth, our galaxy is different from a black hole, some galaxies advance toward rather than recede from us, and the universe has a "foamy" texture of galaxy clusters and voids, but none of these different structures appears to violate the basic laws of physics.

The two testable structural consequences of the cosmological principle are homogeneity and isotropy. Homogeneity means that the same observational evidence is available to observers at different locations in the universe ("the part of the universe which we can see is a fair sample"). Isotropy means that the same observational evidence is available by looking in any direction in the universe ("the same physical laws apply throughout" ). The principles are distinct but closely related, because a universe that appears isotropic from any two (for a spherical geometry, three) locations must also be homogeneous.

Origin

The cosmological principle is first clearly asserted in the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) of Isaac Newton. In contrast to earlier classical or medieval cosmologies, in which Earth rested at the center of universe, Newton conceptualized the Earth as a sphere in orbital motion around the Sun within an empty space that extended uniformly in all directions to immeasurably large distances. He then showed, through a series of mathematical proofs on detailed observational data of the motions of planets and comets, that their motions could be explained by a single principle of "universal gravitation" that applied as well to the orbits of the Galilean moons around Jupiter, the Moon around the Earth, the Earth around the Sun, and to falling bodies on Earth. That is, he asserted the equivalent material nature of all bodies within the Solar System, the identical nature of the Sun and distant stars and thus the uniform extension of the physical laws of motion to a great distance beyond the observational location of Earth itself.

Implications

Observations show that more distant galaxies are closer together and have lower content of chemical elements heavier than lithium.[3] Applying the cosmological principle, this suggests that heavier elements were not created in the Big Bang but were produced by nucleosynthesis in giant stars and expelled across a series of supernovae explosions and new star formation from the supernovae remnants, which means heavier elements would accumulate over time. Another observation is that the furthest galaxies (earlier time) are often more fragmentary, interacting and unusually shaped than local galaxies (recent time), suggesting evolution in galaxy structure as well.

A related implication of the cosmological principle is that the largest discrete structures in the universe are in mechanical equilibrium. Homogeneity and isotropy of matter at the largest scales would suggest that the largest discrete structures are parts of a single indiscrete form, like the crumbs which make up the interior of a cake. At extreme cosmological distances, the property of mechanical equilibrium in surfaces lateral to the line of sight can be empirically tested; however, under the assumption of the cosmological principle, it cannot be detected parallel to the line of sight (see timeline of the universe).

Cosmologists agree that in accordance with observations of distant galaxies, a universe must be non-static if it follows the cosmological principle. In 1923, Alexander Friedmann set out a variant of Einstein's equations of general relativity that describe the dynamics of a homogeneous isotropic universe.[4][5] Independently, Georges Lemaître derived in 1927 the equations of an expanding universe from the General Relativity equations.[6] Thus, a non-static universe is also implied, independent of observations of distant galaxies, as the result of applying the cosmological principle to general relativity.

Criticism

Karl Popper criticized the cosmological principle on the grounds that it makes "our lack of knowledge a principle of knowing something". He summarized his position as:

the “cosmological principles” were, I fear, dogmas that should not have been proposed.[7]

Observations

Although the universe is inhomogeneous at smaller scales, it is statistically homogeneous on scales larger than 250 million light years. The cosmic microwave background is isotropic, that is to say that its intensity is about the same whichever direction we look at.[8]

However, recent findings have called this view into question. Data from the Planck Mission shows hemispheric bias in 2 respects: one with respect to average temperature (i.e. temperature fluctuations), the second with respect to larger variations in the degree of perturbations (i.e. densities). Therefore, the European Space Agency (the governing body of the Planck Mission) has concluded that these anisotropies are, in fact, statistically significant and can no longer be ignored.[9]

Inconsistencies

The cosmological principle implies that at a sufficiently large scale, the universe is homogeneous. This means that different places will appear similar to one another, so sufficiently large structures cannot exist. Yadav and his colleagues have suggested a maximum scale of 260/h Mpc for structures within the universe according to this heuristic. Other authors have suggested values as low as 60/h Mpc.[10] Yadav's calculation suggests that the maximum size of a structure can be about 370 Mpc.[11]

A number of observations conflict with predictions of maximal structure sizes:

In September 2016, however, studies of the expansion of the Universe that have used data taken by the Planck mission show it to be highly isotropical, reinforcing the cosmological principle[14]

Perfect cosmological principle

The perfect cosmological principle is an extension of the cosmological principle, and states that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic in space and time. In this view the universe looks the same everywhere (on the large scale), the same as it always has and always will. The perfect cosmological principle underpins Steady State theory and emerging from chaotic inflation theory.[15][16][17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ William C. Keel (2007). The Road to Galaxy Formation (2nd ed.). Springer-Praxis. ISBN 978-3-540-72534-3.. p. 2.
  2. ↑ Andrew Liddle (2003). An Introduction to Modern Cosmology (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-84835-7.. p. 2.
  3. ↑ Image:CMB Timeline75.jpg - NASA (public domain image)
  4. ↑ Alexander Friedmann (1923). Die Welt als Raum und Zeit (The World as Space and Time). Ostwalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften. ISBN 3-8171-3287-5..
  5. ↑ Ėduard Abramovich Tropp; Viktor Ya. Frenkel; Artur Davidovich Chernin (1993). Alexander A. Friedmann: The Man who Made the Universe Expand. Cambridge University Press. p. 219. ISBN 0-521-38470-2.
  6. ↑ Lemaître, Georges (1927). "Un univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extra-galactiques". Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles. A47 (5): 49–56. Bibcode:1927ASSB...47...49L. translated by A. S. Eddington: Lemaître, Georges (1931). "Expansion of the universe, A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius accounting for the radial velocity of extra-galactic nebulæ". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 91: 483–490. Bibcode:1931MNRAS..91..483L. doi:10.1093/mnras/91.5.483.
  7. ↑ Helge Kragh: “The most philosophically of all the sciences”: Karl Popper and physical cosmology (2012)
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ "Simple but challenging: the Universe according to Planck". ESA Science & Technology. October 5, 2016 [March 21, 2013]. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  10. ↑ Yadav, Jaswant; J. S. Bagla; Nishikanta Khandai (25 February 2010). "Fractal dimension as a measure of the scale of homogeneity". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 405 (3): 2009–2015. Bibcode:2010MNRAS.405.2009Y. arXiv:1001.0617 Freely accessible. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16612.x.
  11. ↑ Clowers, Roger G. (2013). "A structure in the early universe at z ~ 1.3 that exceeds the homogeneity scale of the R-W concordance cosmology". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 429 (4): 2910–2916. Bibcode:2013MNRAS.429.2910C. arXiv:1211.6256 Freely accessible. doi:10.1093/mnras/sts497.
  12. ↑ Gott, J. Richard, III; et al. (May 2005). "A Map of the Universe". The Astrophysical Journal. 624 (2): 463–484. Bibcode:2005ApJ...624..463G. arXiv:astro-ph/0310571 Freely accessible. doi:10.1086/428890.
  13. ↑ Horvath, I.; Hakkila, J.; Bagoly, Z. (2013). "The largest structure of the Universe, defined by Gamma-Ray Bursts". arXiv:1311.1104 Freely accessible [astro-ph.CO].
  14. ↑ How isotropic is the Universe?
  15. ↑ Aguirre, Anthony & Gratton, Steven (2003). "Inflation without a beginning: A null boundary proposal". Phys. Rev. D. 67. Bibcode:2003PhRvD..67h3515A. arXiv:gr-qc/0301042 Freely accessible. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.67.083515.
  16. ↑ Aguirre, Anthony & Gratton, Steven (2002). "Steady-State Eternal Inflation". Phys. Rev. D. 65. Bibcode:2002PhRvD..65h3507A. arXiv:astro-ph/0111191 Freely accessible. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.65.083507.
  17. ↑ Gribbin, John. "Inflation for Beginners".
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