"The Cosmological Principle Assumes..........."

This one slipped by somehow, late last month.

Herewith, yet another in a now rapidly-accumulating series of papers addressing the observed existence of an intrinsic, preferred direction in the Universe, one which is aligned with the CMB dipole, but which cannot be attributed to the assumed motion of the Earth.

As the introductory paragraphs affirm, the Copernican/cosmological Principle- the bedrock assumption underlying our present, Big-Bang, LCDM cosmology- is finding itself seriously challenged by the observations of modern, precision cosmology:

The Cosmological principle assumes that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic on large distance scales. It asserts that there is no special direction in the universe. This assumption leads to the Standard Big Bang Cosmology. But with the modern era of precision cosmology, evidence has been collecting indicating towards deviation from this assumption. 

What needs to be kept in mind during the discussion is the Elephant in the Room, which is only rarely mentioned.

The preferred direction detected in the CMB, and in the radio sky, is not jes' any ol' little preferred direction.....

This direction points at Earth- at US.

Our equator.

Our ecliptic.

Which is manifestly impossible to predict, or explain, under Big Bang LCDM assumptions.

Stay tuned.

The Big Guns, aka Copi, Huterer, Starkman, Schwartz, have a new paper coming soon, based on the Planck satellite data, and addressing these "Axis of Evil" alignments in the CMB.....