A General Test of the Copernican Principle

Chris Clarkson, Bruce Bassett, and Teresa Hui-Ching Lu
Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 011301 – Published 2 July 2008

Abstract

To date, there has been no general way of determining if the Copernican principle—that we live at a typical position in the Universe—is in fact a valid assumption, significantly weakening the foundations of cosmology as a scientific endeavor. Here we present an observational test for the Copernican assumption which can be automatically implemented while we search for dark energy in the coming decade. Our test is entirely independent of any model for dark energy or theory of gravity and thereby represents a model-independent test of the Copernican principle.

  • Received 17 January 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.011301

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Chris Clarkson1, Bruce Bassett1,2, and Teresa Hui-Ching Lu1

  • 1Cosmology and Gravity Group, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
  • 2South African Astronomical Observatory, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 1 — 4 July 2008

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