The rotation problem

Abstract

Any reasonable form of quantum gravity can explain (by phase interference) why on a large scale, inertial frames seem not to rotate relative to the average matter distribution in the universe without the need for absolute space, finely tuned initial conditions, or without giving up independent degrees of freedom for the gravitational field. A simple saddlepoint approximation to a path-integral calculation for a perfect fluid cosmology shows that only cosmologies with an average present relative rotation rate smaller than about $T^*H^2 \approx 10^{-71}$ radians per year could contribute significantly to a measurement of relative rotation rate in our universe, where $T^*\approx 10^{-51}$ years is the Planck time and $H \approx 10^{-10}$ yr$^{-1}$ is the present value of the Hubble parameter. A more detailed calculation (taking into account that with vorticity, flow lines are not normal to surfaces of constant global time, and approximating the action to second order in the mean square vorticity) shows that the saddlepoint at zero vorticity is isolated and that only cosmologies with an average present relative rotation rate smaller than about $T^*H^2 a_1^{1/2} \approx 10^{-73}$ radians per year could contribute significantly to a measurement of relative rotation rate in our universe, where $a_1 \approx 10^{-4}$ is the value of the cosmological scale factor at the time when matter became more significant than radiation in the cosmological expansion. This is consistent with measurements indicating a present relative rotation rate less than about $10^{-20}$ radians per year. The observed lack of relative rotation may be evidence for the existence of quantum gravity.