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Astrophysics > Astrophysics of Galaxies
Title: No evidence for anisotropy in galaxy spin directions
(Submitted on 9 Apr 2024)
Abstract: Modern cosmology rests on the cosmological principle, that on large enough scales the Universe is both homogeneous and isotropic. A corollary is that galaxies' spin vectors should be isotropically distributed on the sky. This has been challenged by multiple authors for over a decade, with claims to have detected a statistically significant dipole pattern of spins. We collect all publicly available datasets with spin classifications (binary clockwise/anticlockwise), and analyse them for large-angle anisotropies ($\ell \le 2$). We perform each inference in both a Bayesian and frequentist fashion, the former establishing posterior probabilities on the multipole parameters and the latter calculating $p$-values for rejection of the null hypothesis of isotropy (i.e. no power at $\ell>0$). All analysis indicate consistency with isotropy to within $3\sigma$. We isolate the differences with contrary claims in the ad hoc or biased statistics that they employ.
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