Reconciling Inflation with Hubble Anisotropies

Abstract: There have been persistent suggestions, based on several diverse data sets, that the cosmic expansion is not exactly isotropic. It is not easy to develop a coherent theoretical account of such a Hubble anisotropy'', for, in standard General Relativity, intuition suggests that it contradicts the predictions of the very successful Inflationary hypothesis. We put this intuition on a firm basis, by proving that if we [a] make use of an Inflationary theory in which Inflation isotropises spatial geometry -- $\,$ this, of course, includes the vast majority of such theories -- $\,$ and if [b] we insist on assuming that spacetime has a strictly metric geometry (one in which the geometry is completely determined by a metric tensor), then indeed all aspects of theHubble field'' must be isotropic. Conversely, should a Hubble anisotropy be confirmed, then either we must contrive to build anisotropy into Inflation from the outset, or we will have to accept that spacetime geometry is not strictly metric. We argue that allowing spacetime torsion to be non-zero would be by far the most natural way to accommodate such observations. Such theories make firm predictions, as for example that there should be a correlation between the degree of anisotropy at the end of Inflation and a certain specific component of the Hubble tension.