HackerPapers

arXiv:0812.3437astro-ph

Does the Universe Have a Handedness?

Michael J. Longo

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".

arXiv comments
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
astro-phAstrophysics

On Hacker News

Linked by 2 identifiable commenters in 2 comments across 2 threads, from Oct 2019 to Jun 2023.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments2 threads

  1. Strong Solar Flare Erupts from Sun on Jun 20, 2023 1 comment

    • I'm sorry to say that none of these is close to the review I asked for, and afaics your first result explicitly quotes from and your fourth is preceded by an image taken from the PRL letter (Sadeeh et al) I supplied in my comment's second paragraph. The former is a summary of…

      raattgiftView on HNParent context

  2. I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s 1 comment

    • I think it's a shame that you're being downvoted for nothing more than expressing a reasonable, albeit apparently unpopular, opinion. For plenty of us, AndrewKemendo is right... learning that there is life on Mars would not answer any particularly fundamental questions. Maybe…

      mindcrimeView on HNParent context

Submitted to Hacker News

Connected through shared HN threads, not inferred similarity or a recommendation.