TL;DR
This study investigates whether the universe exhibits a preferred handedness by analyzing spiral galaxy orientations, finding a significant asymmetry that suggests a possible large-scale parity violation.
Contribution
It extends previous galaxy handedness analysis with a larger dataset, confirming a significant dipole asymmetry aligned with the Galaxy and the Axis of Evil.
Findings
Significant dipole asymmetry in galaxy handedness (p < 2.5x10^-7)
Asymmetry axis aligned with the Galaxy and Axis of Evil
Results consistent across different galaxy samples
Abstract
In this article I extend an earlier study of spiral galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to investigate whether the universe has an overall handedness. A preference for spiral galaxies in one sector of the sky to be left-handed or right-handed spirals would indicate a parity-violating asymmetry in the overall universe and a preferred axis. The previous study used 2616 spiral galaxies with redshifts <0.04 and identified handedness. The new study uses 15872 with redshifts <0.085 and obtains very similar results to the first with a signal exceeding 5 sigma, corresponding to a probability of 2.5x10-7 for occurring by chance. The axis of the dipole asymmetry lies at approx. (l, b) =(32d,69d), roughly along that of our Galaxy and close to the so-called "Axis of Evil".
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.