A multipolar universe?

Over the last few years, there have been repeated claims of dipolar anisotropies in a number of cosmological observations. These include dipoles in the number counts of distant astrophysical objects, like quasars and radio galaxies for example, as well as dipoles in certain cosmological parameters, such as the Hubble and the deceleration parameter. In view of these reports, the emerging question is whether the associated observations reflect some underlying generic anisotropy of the universe we live in, whether they are late-time additions triggered by the ongoing process of structure formation in particular, or they are mere artefacts of our gross misinterpretation of the data. The aim of the workshop is to review the above-mentioned issues, both from the observational and from the theoretical point of view, to consider possible explanations, and to discuss their potential implications for the future of cosmological research.

Topics: anisotropies in cosmic kinematics, cosmic dipoles, beyond ΛCDM cosmological model