Does the Universe Have a Preferred Frame of Reference?

  • #1
Stephanus
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Dear PF Forum,

Again the same question about preferred frame of reference. I have read several threads in Physics forum, but I think this question belong to cosmology. And I have searched in Google and in PF forum threads, so, I'll ask some confirmation here.
1. Does the universe have a preferred frame of reference?
2. Some says it's CMB. Is it true?
3. Is it aether all over again?
4. If this is true, does the universe have coordinates?
And I don't mean this coordinate:
Take Vega for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega
Right ascension 18h 36m 56.33635s
Declination +38° 47′ 01.2802″

Again, twin paradox.
Two twins, A stays and B travels, after B comes back, he finds his clock runs slower than A's.
But in B respect (without calculating acceleration effect) it's A who travels. But B ages slower because B changes its inertial frame of reference.
Supposed that B slingshots a black hole to "reverse" direction.

5. How does every atom, matter, energy and time in B rocket knows that it changes its inertial frame of reference?

Thanks for any ideaSteven
 
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  • #2
Stephanus said:
1. Does the universe have a preferred frame of reference?
The universe is not a sentient entity. So far, all experiments confirmed that the laws of physics are the same in all reference frames up to the experimental precision.
Stephanus said:
3. Is it aether all over again?
No.
Stephanus said:
4. If this is true, does the universe have coordinates?
No, coordinates are a human invention. We can invent a coordinate system, based on an arbitrary reference frame (like the earth-based one used in your quote).
Stephanus said:
5. How does every atom, matter, energy and time in B rocket knows that it changes its inertial frame of reference?
Acceleration is detectable.
 
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  • #3
Still, I would say it does in a way. The assumption is that the (very) large scale distribution of matter is approximately comoving, which means there is a shared "cosmological" time and this comoving matter defines a frame of reference, the CMB frame, with respect to which anyone can measure its own velocity.
But this is no aether : what defines this frame is the matter in the universe, not some substance in between.
 

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