ON THE SOURCE OF ANISOTROPY IN COSMIC-RADIATION FROM GENERAL-RELATIVITY

This paper points to the qualitative agreement between recent observat ions of anisotropy in electromagnetic radiation propagation over cosmo logical distances and the general predictions of the characteristics o f the geodesic in general relativity theory, when it is expressed in i ts most general (irreducible) form. The latter is based on the irreduc ible representations of the ''Einstein group'' - a 16-parameter Lie gr oup signifying only continuous, analytic transformations that underlie the general covariance of the laws of nature. The fundamental metrica l field - the 16-component quaternion q(mu)(x) - is obtained from a fa ctorization of the differential Riemannian invariant ds(2). This resul ts in a factorization of the 10-component symmetric tensor formalism o f Einstein's equations to a 16-component quaternion formalism. The new formalism predicts a geodesic that entails rotational as well as tran slational motion, for matter as well as radiation.