A Challenge to the Standard Cosmological Model

Understand

We present the first joint analysis of catalogs of radio galaxies and quasars to determine if their sky distribution is consistent with the standard $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology.

• This model is based on the cosmological principle, which asserts that the universe is statistically isotropic and homogeneous on large scales, so the observed dipole anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) must be attributed to our local peculiar motion.
• We test the null hypothesis that there is a dipole anisotropy in the sky distribution of radio galaxies and quasars consistent with the motion inferred from the CMB, as is expected for cosmologically distant sources.
• Our two samples, constructed respectively from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, are systematically independent and have no shared objects.