Time Drift of Cosmological Redshifts as a Test of the Copernican Principle

2008/01/31 by Jean-Philippe Uzan, Jean–Philippe Uzan, Chris Clarkson +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #astro-ph #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.191303

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.100:191303,2008 · 4 pages. Version matching the published text in PRL

openalex publication_date 2008/05/16 · arxiv created 2008/07/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We present the time drift of the cosmological redshift in a general spherically symmetric spacetime. We demonstrate that its observation would allow us to test the Copernican principle and so determine if our Universe is radially inhomogeneous, an important issue in our understanding of dark energy. In particular, when combined with distance data, this extra observable allows one to fully reconstruct the geometry of a spacetime describing a spherically symmetric underdense region around us, purely from background observations.

Citations

• The fundamental constants and their variation: observational and theoretical status
• The cosmological constant and dark energy
• Inhomogeneous spacetimes as a dark energy model
• Undermining the cosmological principle: almost isotropic observations in inhomogeneous cosmologies
• Is Dark Energy the Only Solution to the Apparent Acceleration of the Present Universe?
• Ideal observational cosmology
• First‐Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Cosmic distance-duality as a probe of exotic physics and acceleration
• Geocentrism reexamined

Cited by

• A General Test of the Copernican Principle
• Rendering dark energy void
• Copernican principle [wikipedia]