The Shape and Topology of the Universe

Abstract

What is the shape of the Universe? Is it curved or flat, finite or infinite ? Is space "wrapped around" to create ghost images of faraway cosmic sources? We review how tessellations allow to build multiply-connected 3D Riemannian spaces useful for cosmology. We discuss more particularly the proposal of a finite, positively curved, dodecahedral space for explaining some puzzling features of the cosmic microwave background radiation, as revealed by the 2003-2006 WMAP data releases.

arXiv comment21 pages, 11 figures. Proceedings of conference "Tessellations : The world a jigsaw", Leyden (Netherlands), march 2006

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Searching for a Cosmological Preferred Axis: Union2 Data Analysis and Comparison with Other Probes
• A search for cosmic topology in the final WMAP data
• Dark Energy Cosmology with the Alternative Cosmic Microwave Background Data
• A survey of lens spaces and large-scale CMB anisotropy
• Cosmic Topology of Polyhedral Double-Action Manifolds
• How well-proportioned are lens and prism spaces?
• Waves on accelerating dodecahedral universes
• Large Scale Cosmological Anomalies and Inhomogeneous Dark Energy
• Wave computation on the Poincaré dodecahedral space
• Gravitational potentials and forces in the Lattice Universe: a slab
• The Evolution of the Hubble Sequence: morpho-kinematics of distant galaxies
• Maximally symmetric spaces in Brans-Dicke theory and the cosmological constant
• Transformation Optics for the Modelling of Waves in a Universe with Nontrivial Topology