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Galaxy Rotation in Voids Tests Inflation ⚡ экспресс

Original: "Constraining Inflation Models with Spinning Voids"
· Geonwoo Kang, Jounghun Lee
arXiv:2601.06589v1 · 2026-01-10 · CC BY 4.0 · ⏱ 1 min · Cosmology Galaxies General Relativity
By observing the rotation of galaxies in cosmic voids, scientists have found a way to test exactly how the Universe inflated in its first moments.
Abstract

In vast cosmic voids, galaxies rotate like a single mechanism, like wood chips in a giant whirlpool. This rotation depends on the tiniest perturbations that arose at the birth of the Universe. By measuring it, we can check exactly how it expanded in the first fractions of a second. Thus, voids become a window into the inflationary epoch.

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In the nearly empty regions of space, galaxies spin in unison, like dancers in the same troupe. This dance creates a difference in light from opposite sides: on one side stretching, on the other compression. This optical shift has become a probe of the first moments after the Big Bang.

Amazingly, the dance depends almost neither on the expansion of the Universe nor on the fickle dark energy. It is disrupted only if the 'clumpiness' of the primordial ripples changed with size — that is, during non-uniform inflation. This subtle characteristic, the running of the spectral index, can be measured directly by observing thousands of voids.

Such a method can confirm the hypothesis of Alan Guth and, within the standard model, fill the gaps. The void holds the key to the beginning — you just need to read the dance of galaxies.

🎯 The most studied void in the constellation Boötes stretches 330 million light-years, but only 60 galaxies have been found in it — and they all spin in unison.

🎬 Science fiction writers populate cosmic voids with ghosts of dead civilizations, but reality turned out to be more interesting: it is in these 'dead zones' that the key to the birth of the Universe is hidden.

Scientists
Alan GuthAndrei LindeGeorges LemaîtreJames PeeblesAdam RiessBrian Schmidt
Tags
big bang dark energy galaxy expansion of the universe Standard Model
Laws
Friedmann equationsHubble's lawNoether's theoremEinstein field equationsPlanck's lawspin–statistics theorem
Original: arXiv:2601.06589v1 · CC BY 4.0 · bridge42worlds