Topology of the universe

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Toby Bartels (talk | contribs) at 05:28, 17 September 2002 (Originally written by 216.235.32.129 at Topology; some changes by me.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

According to the general theory of relativity, spacetime is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. The topology of the universe is the underlying topology of this manifold.

We do not yet know the global topology of the universe, and in fact may never be able to know what it is. However, cosmologists are trying to measure cosmic topology using data from ground-based and space-based telescopes. Results from the MAP telescope may give an answer by 2002 or 2003. Or maybe not...