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They have found the Universe is flat.
Since the entire Universe is flat with zero curvature, the Universe can be modelled as a hypersphere of infinite radius.
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Universe is flat? Sounds familiar, not that long ago many thought Earth was flat too.
In Bojans link:
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Current observational evidence suggests that ours is a flat universe. "But the measurements still allow for a universe where the density is one-third of the critical density and the universe is still within 1% of being flat," explains Liddle. This is the crux of the researchers' argument: it may be possible that the universe appears flat but is really curved with a characteristic radius on a very large scale. This "superhorizon curvature radius" determines the wavelength of the asymmetry-generating curvaton fluctuation. This radius does extend beyond our observable horizon but by no more than an order of magnitude. "So, if the universe is within 1% of being flat, then the curvature scale is three times as big as the observable scale, but there could be some physical processes related to it that could be measured," according to Liddle.
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Not that long ago there was post how galaxies above us all spin one way and galaxies bellow spin other way. Like they are all spinning around something bigger? Carl said then there is no need to have anything to spin around because galaxies can do that on their own. Well, coincidentally they spin uniformly?
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The researchers then point out that their curvaton fluctuations could pop up in another set of "open inflation" theories, first proposed in the 1990s, that suggest that our observable universe forms like a bubble in a larger universe. In this theory our bubble universe is born thanks to a quantum-tunnelling event from a low-energy state and is trapped in what Liddle describes as a "false vacuum state" (click on figure above). The walls of such a bubble would expand at a velocity approaching that of light. "So, on the inside it would look to us as if we were in an open universe that is homogenous and isotropic," says Liddle, further explaining that inside the bubble, the concept of time is different from outside. "The amount of inflation inside the bubble would determine how 'flat' it will be...Will it be dominated by dark matter?...Will it suffer a heat death?"
There may be many other such bubble universes within the larger universe, but our bubble would almost never interact with them and neither would we be able to see out of our "opaque bubble" explains Liddle. But, the initial event that induced the birth of our bubble universe would also cause fluctuations in the bubble wall, which in turn imprint themselves on the curvaton fluctuations.
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Don't get me wrong, I love science. And yes, even though its hard to understand "infinity" I do believe Universe is infinite, I simply can not think any other way.
cheers
bob