2.6. Cosmic topology

The usual hypothesis is that the Universe has the simplest topology consistent with its geometry, for example that a flat Universe extends forever. Observations cannot tell us whether that is true, but they can test the possibility of a non-trivial topology on scales up to roughly the present Hubble scale. Extra parameters would be needed to specify both the type and scale of the topology, for example, a cuboidal topology would need specification of the three principal axis lengths. At present, there is no direct evidence for cosmic topology, though the low values of the observed cosmic microwave quadrupole and octupole have been cited as a possible signature.