Paper · Nov 30, 2022

Large-scale geometry of the Universe

Yassir Awwad, Tomislav Prokopec

astro-ph.COarXiv:2211.16893v2

As on arXiv

Abstract

The large scale geometry of the late Universe can be decomposed as R, where R stands for cosmic time and is the three dimensional spatial manifold. We conjecture that the spatial geometry of the Universe's spatial section conforms with the Thurston-Perelman theorem, according to which the geometry of is either one of the eight geometries from the Thurston geometrization conjecture, or a combination of Thurston geometries smoothly sewn together. We assume that topology of individual geometries plays no observational role, i.e. the size of individual geometries is much larger than the Hubble radius today. We investigate the dynamics of each of the individual geometries by making use of the simplifying assumption that our local Hubble patch consists of only one such geometry, which is approximately homogeneous on very large scales, but spatial isotropy is generally violated. Spatial anisotropies grow in time in decelerating universes, but they decay in accelerating universes. The thus-created anisotropy problem can be solved by a period of primordial inflation, akin to how the flatness problem is solved. Therefore, as regards Universe's large scale geometry, any of the Thurston's geometries should be considered on a par with Friedmann's geometries. We consider two observational methods that can be used to test our conjecture: one based on luminosity distance and one on angular diameter distance measurements, but leave for the future their detailed forecasting implementations.

Submitted
Nov 30, 2022
Last revised
Dec 7, 2023 (v2)
Subjects
astro-ph.CO, gr-qc, hep-th

Comments: 43 pages, 45 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in JCAP

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The 8 papers on this site closest to this one, judged by the topics they share, the words and phrases in their titles and abstracts, and their authors. They are not its citations, but a map of the work around it. Papers here go back to 2021, plus the canon.

Connected papers This paper in the centre and the 8 papers closest to it around it, in date order clockwise from the top. The closer a paper sits to the centre, the stronger the connection. This paper The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications (Grisha Perelman, 2002)6Perelman 2002 Hamilton-Perelman's Proof of the Poincaré Conjecture and the Geometrization Conjecture (Huai-Dong Cao and Xi-Ping Zhu, 2006)8Cao 2006 Geometrization in Geometry (Izabella Muraro de Freitas and Álvaro Krüger Ramos, 2022)4de Freitas 2022 On Ricci Solitons and Harmonic Vector Fields in the Thurston Geometry F⁴ (Halima Boukhari, Hadjer Okbani and Ahmed Mohammed Cherif, 2026)2Boukhari 2026 Modifications of CMB Temperature and Polarization Quadrupole Signals in Thurston Spacetimes (Tanay Gupta, Sukanta Panda and Rajib Saha, 2026)1Gupta 2026 Geometrisation of 3-manifolds (Bruno Martelli, 2026)5Martelli 2026 Under Ricci flow, a 3-torus goes flat (John Lott, 2026)7Lott 2026 A Lean Formalization of the Hamilton–Perelman Proof of Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture (Yuan Liao, Ziyang Qin, Jui-Hui Chung et al., 2026)3Liao 2026
Closer to the centre: more closely connected. Clockwise from the top: oldest to newest. Ricci flowWider flowsalso connected to each other
  1. Modifications of CMB Temperature and Polarization Quadrupole Signals in Thurston Spacetimes

    Tanay Gupta, Sukanta Panda and Rajib Saha

    Topics Geometrization · Shared terms “large scale”, “Thurston geometries”, “individual”

  2. On Ricci Solitons and Harmonic Vector Fields in the Thurston Geometry

    Halima Boukhari, Hadjer Okbani and Ahmed Mohammed Cherif

    Topics Geometrization, Homogeneous spaces · Shared terms “Thurston geometries”

  3. A Lean Formalization of the Hamilton–Perelman Proof of Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture

    Yuan Liao, Ziyang Qin, Jui-Hui Chung et al.

    Topics Geometrization · Shared terms “Thurston geometrization”, “geometrization conjecture”, “Perelman”

  4. Geometrization in Geometry

    Izabella Muraro de Freitas and Álvaro Krüger Ramos

    Topics Geometrization · Shared terms “Thurston”, “Perelman”

  5. Geometrisation of 3-manifolds

    Bruno Martelli

    Topics Geometrization, 3-manifolds · Shared terms “Thurston”, “Perelman”

  6. The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications

    Grisha PerelmanThe canon

    Topics Geometrization, 3-manifolds · Shared terms “Thurston geometrization”, “geometrization conjecture”

  7. Under Ricci flow, a 3-torus goes flat

    John Lott

    Topics Geometrization, 3-manifolds, Homogeneous spaces · Shared terms “Thurston”

  8. Hamilton-Perelman's Proof of the Poincaré Conjecture and the Geometrization Conjecture

    Huai-Dong Cao and Xi-Ping ZhuThe canon

    Topics Geometrization, 3-manifolds · Shared terms “geometrization conjecture”, “detailed”, “Perelman”

Read around it

Background reading

The guides for the topics of this paper: what each idea is, why it matters, and the papers to read first.

In the guidebook

  1. 10A.2
    Finite Rotation Groups and Spherical Space FormsBook 10A · Three-Manifolds and Geometrization

    Klein's classification by counting poles, the binary groups, and every quotient of the round 3-sphere.

  2. 10A.8
    Thurston’s Eight GeometriesBook 10A · Three-Manifolds and Geometrization

    The model geometries, the geometrization conjecture, and why it implies Poincaré.

  3. 10A.9
    Hyperbolic Three-ManifoldsBook 10A · Three-Manifolds and Geometrization

    Ideal tetrahedra, Mostow rigidity, and the thick–thin decomposition.