Cosmological Principle - Implications

Implications

The cosmological principle represents both the principle on which cosmological theory and observation can proceed and a "null" hypothesis of uniformity that is an area of active research inquiry. Many important advances in astronomy and cosmology, and the formulation of new cosmological theories, have occurred through the resolution of apparent violations of the cosmological principle. For example, the original discovery that far galaxies appeared to have higher spectral redshifts than near galaxies (an apparent violation of homogeneity) led to the discovery of Hubble flow, the metric expansion of space that occurs equally in all locations (restoring homogeneity).

The universe is now described as having a history, starting with the Big Bang and proceeding through distinct epochs of stellar and galaxy formation. Because this history is currently described (after the first fraction of a second after the origin) almost entirely in terms of known physical processes and particle physics, the cosmological principle is extended to assert the homogeneity of cosmological evolution across the anisotropy of time:

… all points in space ought to experience the same physical development, correlated in time in such a way that all points at a certain distance from an observer appear to be at the same stage of development. In that sense, all spatial conditions in the Universe must appear to be homogeneous and isotropic to an observer at all times in the future and in the past.

That is, earlier times are identical to the "distance from the observer" in spacetime, which is assessed as the redshift of the light arriving from the observed celestial object: the cosmological principle is preserved because the same sequence of evolution is observed in all directions from earth, and is inferred to be identical to the sequence that would be observed from any other location in the universe.

Observations show that more distant galaxies are closer together and have lower content of chemical elements heavier than lithium). Applying the cosmological principle, this suggests that heavier elements were not created in the Big Bang but were produced by nucleosynthesis in giant stars and expelled across a series of supernovae explosions and new star formation from the supernovae remnants, which means heavier elements would accumulate over time. Another observation is that the furthest galaxies (earlier time) are often more fragmentary, interacting and unusually shaped than local galaxies (recent time), suggesting evolution in galaxy structure as well.

A related implication of the cosmological principle is that the largest discrete structures in the universe are in mechanical equilibrium. Homogeneity and isotropy of matter at the largest scales would suggest that the largest discrete structures are parts of a single indiscrete form, like the crumbs which make up the interior of a cake. At extreme cosmological distances, the property of mechanical equilibrium in surfaces lateral to the line of sight can be empirically tested; however, under the assumption of the cosmological principle, it cannot be detected parallel to the line of sight (see timeline of the universe).

Cosmologists agree that in accordance with observations of distant galaxies, a universe must be non-static if it follows the cosmological principle. In 1923, Alexander Friedmann set out a variant of Einstein's equations of general relativity that describe the dynamics of a homogeneous isotropic universe. Independently, Georges Lemaître derived in 1927 the equations of an expanding universe from the General Relativity equations. Thus, a non-static universe is also implied, independent of observations of distant galaxies, as the result of applying the cosmological principle to general relativity.