2021/05/11 by Istvan Szapudi, Szapudi, Istvan
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2105.05337
4 pages, Essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2021 Awards for Essays on Gravitation
arxiv created 2021/05/11 · arxiv updated 2021/05/13
The analyses of high precision astrometric surveys, such as Gaia, implicitly assume a modern version of Mach's Principle: the local inertial frame of our Solar System should be non-rotating in the frame of distant quasars. On the contrary, Einstein's General Relativity allows a rotating universe. Thus, relaxing the assumption of Mach's Principle will allow placing a constraint on a class of rotating cosmologies by comparing high precision astrometry of quasars with well-measured solar system orbits. Constraining global rotation will test General Relativity, inflation, and the isotropy of cosmological initial conditions.