Solar peculiar motion inferred from dipole anisotropy in redshift distribution of quasars appears to lie along the Galactic Centre direction
arXiv:2508.20769 · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-13426-0
Abstract
According to the Cosmological Principle an observer stationary with respect to the comoving coordinates of the expanding universe should find the redshift distribution of distant quasars to be isotropic. However, the observed redshift distribution in a large sample of 1.3 million quasars shows a significant dipole anisotropy. A peculiar motion of the observer could introduce such a dipole anisotropy in the observed redshift distribution. However, the motion inferred therefrom turns out to be not only many times the peculiar motion estimated from the anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), but also nearly in a direction at a right angle. The Solar peculiar motion, in fact, turns out to be, quite unexpectedly, in the direction of the Galactic Centre. Such a statistically significant discrepancy in peculiar motion, derived by different methodologies, could imply a violation of the cosmological principle, a cornerstone in the foundation of the standard model.
16 pages, 6 figures, 1 Table, accepted in Scientific Reports - Nature Portfolio journal
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