Rotation in cosmology

Cosmological models for a universe with expansion and rotation are considered. In particular, we analyse some effects of the universal rotation on the observational cosmology. It is shown that pure cosmic rotation does not produce neither causality voilations, nor parallax effects, nor anisotropy of the microwave background radiation. It can be detected by studying angular dependence of standard cosmological tests, and is directly measurable via polarization observations. The latter are used to obtain experimental estimates for the direction and value of the rotation of the universeThis essay received the third award from the Gravity Research Foundation, 1991 — Ed.