2003/04/15 by S. J. Weatherley, S. J. Warren, S. M. Croom +6
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06698.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.342:L9,2003 · MNRAS Letters, Accepted, 5 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2003/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2003/06/02 · arxiv updated 2011/03/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We revisit the possibility that we inhabit a compact multi-connected flat, or nearly flat, Universe. Analysis of COBE data has shown that, for such a case, the size of the fundamental domain must be a substantial fraction of the horizon size. Nevertheless, there could be several copies of the Universe within the horizon. If the Milky Way was once a quasar we might detect its ‘ghost’ images. Using new large quasar catalogues we repeat the search by Fagundes & Wichoski for antipodal quasar pairs. By applying linear theory to account for the peculiar velocity of the Local Group, we are able to narrow the search radius to 134 arcsec. We find seven candidate antipodal quasar pairs within this search radius. However, a similar number would be expected by chance. We argue that, even with larger quasar catalogues, and more accurate values of the cosmological parameters, it is unlikely to be possible to identify putative ghost pairs unambiguously, because of the uncertainty of the correction for peculiar motion of the Milky Way.