Related papers: The Universe is Odd
For two decades the hot big-bang model has been referred to as the standard cosmology -- and for good reason. For just as long cosmologists have known that there are fundamental questions that are not addressed by the standard cosmology and…
I critically discuss in a pedagogical and phenomenological way a few crucial tests challenging the claims by Pietronero and collaborators that there is no evidence from available galaxy catalogues that the Universe is actually homogeneous…
We are at a specific period of modern cosmology, during which the large increase of the amount of data leads to the idea that the determination of cosmological parameters has been achieved with a rather good precision. There is a large…
The observable universe is necessarily hospitable for life. There are indications, however, that the laws of physics and cosmological parameters need not take the form and values observed, and if they were slightly different life could not…
The most fundamental premise to the standard model of the universe, the Cosmological Principle (CP), states that the large-scale properties of the universe are the same in all directions and at all comoving positions. Demonstrating this…
Ordinary, macroscopic systems, naturally tend to a state of maximum entropy compatible with their constraints. However, this might not hold for gravity-dominated systems since their entropy may increase without bound unless this is…
It is only human nature to be reluctant to accept something new and different. This feeling is exacerbated given the success of the Big Bang model. However, there are cogent reasons for considering this new model. Some of the advantages of…
Recent cosmological observations suggest that nearly seventy per cent of the energy density in the universe is unclustered and has negative pressure. Several conceptual issues related to the modeling of this component (`dark energy'), which…
If the topology of the universe is compact we show how it significantly changes our assessment of the naturalness of the observed structure of the universe and the likelihood of its present state of high isotropy and near flatness arising…
Galaxies are not distributed randomly throughout space but are instead arranged in an intricate "cosmic web" of filaments and walls surrounding bubble-like voids. There is still no compelling observational evidence of a link between the…
A model is presented for the origin of the large scale structure of the universe and their Mass-Radius scaling law; a fractal power law, $M \propto R^D$, with dimension $D=2$, most significantly. The physics is conventional, orthodox, but…
We consider a universe with an arbitrary number of extra dimensions, $N$. We present a new method for constructing the cosmological equations of motion and find analytic solutions with an explicit dependence on $N$. When we take the…
Cosmological observations on the largest scales exhibit a solid record of unexpected anomalies and alignments, apparently pointing towards a large scale violation of statistical isotropy. These include a variety of CMB measurements, as well…
We review a cosmology in which particles are fluctuationally created from a background Zero Point Field. This cosmology is consistent with recent observations of an ever expanding and accelerating universe, as also the recently confirmed…
We explore the distribution of position angles (PA) of galaxies in clusters. We selected for study the isolated clusters, since the distribution of the galaxy orientation in clusters with close neighbors could be altered by gravitational…
We develop a general theory for estimating the probability that a galaxy cluster of a given shape exists. The theory is based on the observed result that the distribution of galaxies is very close to quasi-equilibrium, in both its linear…
Although the current galaxy models yield calculations consistent with much of the data, many irregularities exist, exceptions have been found to the current models, the $\Lambda$CDM model apparently fails on galaxy scales, dark matter…
The study of the properties of cosmic structures in the universe is one of the most fascinating subject of the modern cosmology research. Far from being predicted, the large scale structure of the matter distribution is a very recent…
Cosmology relies on the Cosmological Principle, i.e., the hypothesis that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic on large scales. This implies in particular that the counts of galaxies should approach a homogeneous scaling with volume at…
Our knowledge of the Universe remains discovery-led: in the absence of adequate physics-based theory, interpretation of new results requires a scientific methodology. Commonly, scientific progress in astrophysics is motivated by the…