Cosmic Topology : Twenty Years After

2013/10/13 by Jean-Pierre Luminet
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1134/s0202289314010058

14 pages. Contribution to a special issue of the journal "Gravitation and Cosmology" devoted to the 75th birthday of Prof. Andrey Grib. Version 2 (some sentences have been rephrased to avoid text overlap with arXiv:1303.5086, arXiv:1303.4226, arXiv:1104.0015 by other authors). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0802.2236

arxiv created 2013/10/13 · arxiv updated 2015/06/17

Abstract

What is the shape of the Universe? Is it finite or infinite ? Is space multi-connected to create ghost images of faraway cosmic sources? After a "dark age" period, the field of cosmic topology has now become one of the major concerns in astronomy and cosmology, not only from theorists but also from observational astronomers. Here I give a personal account of the spectacular progress in the field since the beginning of the 1990's, when I started to work in it.

Citations

• Planck 2013 results. XXVI. Background geometry and topology of the Universe
• A search for cosmic topology in the final WMAP data
• Constraints on the global topology and size of the universe from the cosmic microwave background
• The Shape and Topology of the Universe