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LECTURE 14
Cosmology
(Reference: M. S. Turner and J. A. Tyson, ``Cosmology at the Millennium,''
in More Things in Heaven and Earth: A Celebration of Physics
at the Millennium, edited by Benjamin Bederson (1999); and S. Weinberg,
The First Three Minutes (Updated Edition), published by Basic Books
(1993).)
Cosmology is the study of the origin of the universe and its subsequent
evolution. ``Where did the universe come from?'' is one of the oldest
questions that man has asked. For example, the book of Genesis in the Bible
begins with ``In the beginning . . .'' The amazing thing is that science
can actually say intelligent things about the beginning of the universe
based on observations.
If you look up at the night sky, it looks pretty much the same as it did
centuries ago. In fact, until this century, it was believed that the heavens
were unchanging. We now know that the universe began between 13 and 17
billion years ago and has been expanding ever since. The initial event
when the universe began is called the Big Bang. The Big Bang is marked
by a tremendous release of energy; so much energy, in fact, that the
4 basic forces (gravity, electromagnetic, strong and weak) were unified
into one. One tends to think of the universe starting as a point and
expanding out like a balloon. But one can equally well think of the
universe as starting infinitely big with a cosmic scale factor R(t) that
grows with time. One can say the universe is infinitely big because
one always takes the integrals over space to go from to
. So the universe starts out infinite and gets bigger!
Which picture is correct is not known and the question
may not have any real meaning. As the universe expanded, it cooled.
The 4 basic forces differentiated (GUTs symmetry was broken), matter
was formed (baryons, leptons) from the energy, atoms (primarily
hydrogen and helium) were formed, and eventually stars and galaxies.
We'll discuss the details of this timeline later. I want first to
tell you about some of the history of cosmology.
Evidence for the Big Bang
1. General Relativity and Hubble's Observations
How do we know the universe is expanding? What evidence do we have
for the Big Bang? As I said, at the beginning of the 20th century,
people assumed the universe was unchanging and was the way it had
always been. In 1917 Einstein worked out the theory of general
relativity which deals with gravity in terms of a curved space-time.
The Einstein equations said that the universe was expanding and
decelerating. (Gravity was causing the deceleration.) Einstein
believed that his equations were coming to the wrong conclusion.
He believed that the universe was unchanging. So he fixed his
equations by adding a constant of integration called the
``cosmological constant'' which is often denoted by .
In 1929 Edwin Hubble presented observational evidence that the universe was
expanding. He found a correlation between the velocities
of galaxies and their distance from us. Basically it's a linear
relation that says the farther a galaxy is from us, the faster
it's moving.
=2.0 true in
Hubble.eps
We can tell the speed of a galaxy from its red
shift. The larger the red shift, the faster it's moving away
from us. The red shift (often denoted by z) can be determined
by passing the light from a galaxy through a spectrum analyzer.
The spectra of
spiral galaxies have bright emission lines coming from hydrogen
gas while elliptical galaxies have dark thin absorption lines which
correspond to the atomic transitions by atoms in the
atmospheres of stars in the galaxy. By comparing a galaxy's
spectrum with the known atomic spectra of various elements, we
can determine what the red shift is. (All the lines are shifted by
the same amount.) So once we have the red shift, we have the velocity.
Now how do we find the corresponding distance? We must have some
independent way of finding the distance. Hubble used the Cepheid
variable stars in galaxies. These are bright stars
whose luminosity varies periodically in time. Leavitt and Shapley
had worked out a relation between the period and the absolute
luminosity of a Cepheid variable. Using this and the apparent
luminosity of the Cepheids, Hubble was able to
determine the distance to various galaxies. We refer to the
Cepheids as ``standard candles.'' (Absolute
luminosity refers to the total power emitted by an object;
apparent luminosity refers to what we see.)
Hubble found the linear relationship
shown in the figure. The farther the galaxy, the bigger the red shift,
and the larger its velocity away from us. This was the first evidence
that the universe is expanding. Einstein kicked himself (figuratively
speaking) for not predicting that the universe was expanding,
said that introducing the cosmological constant was
his biggest mistake, and figured that . Note that just
because all the distant galaxies we see are moving away from us,
does not mean that we are at the center of the galaxy. If we lived
in some other galaxy (far, far away) we would see the same thing.
Think of a balloon with polka dots painted on it. Suppose there is
an ant sitting on one of the dots looking around at the other dots.
As the balloon is blown up, the ant sees all the other dots moving
away from him. This idea is embodied in
the cosmological principle which is the hypothesis that the
universe is isotropic and homogeneous.
One can view the red shift as a Doppler shift associated with
the expansion of the universe. The red shifts are characterized
by a parameter z which is defined by
where is the wavelength of emitted or observed light.
It is also valid to think of the
red shift as due to increasing or conformally stretching the wavelengths
of light which are embedded in the expanding fabric of spacetime.
Let R(t) be the cosmic scale factor which has dimensions of length.
The conformal stretching of wavelengths can be expressed by the fact
that the wavelength is larger now by a factor
If we take relativistic time dilation into account, then
the red shift due to the Doppler shift can be expressed as
where v is the velocity of the source. Notice that it is possible for
z to have very large values. In the limit that
, this reduces to the classical limit
The slope of Hubble's velocity versus distance plot is called Hubble's
constant and is denoted by Ho. Let d be the distance and
let the velocity be zc where c is the velocity of light.
Then for , we can write Hubble's
relationship as
The value of H changes with time because the rate of expansion
of the universe changes and because our measurements get better.
The current value is
km/sec-Mpc.
1Mpc = 1 megaparsec =3.09
cm 3 million
light years. (1 parsec 3 light years. This is the typical
distance betweeen stars.)
The inverse of the Hubble constant-the Hubble time-sets
a timescale for the age of the Universe:
billion
years. (We use H to denote the value of Hubble's constant at
any time and Ho to denote the value at the present time.)
Until recently it was generally believed that or that
was very small. One assumed that the initial outward push
was provided by the energy released in the Big Bang and that the
gravitational attraction of the matter and energy of the universe
was causing the rate of expansion to decrease.
However, in 1998, 2 groups of astrophysicists used type 1a supernovae
as standard candles. Type 1a
supernovae result when a white dwarf accretes matter and reaches the
Chandrasakar limit of 1.4 solar masses. At that point, it explodes.
(A white dwarf is a hot, dim star that has burned all of its hydrogen
and almost all of its helium. It has a carbon oxygen core surrounded by
a thin layer of helium rich gas. The only thing holding it up against
gravitational collapse is the electron degeneracy pressure (Pauli
principle for electrons). The Chandrasakar limit is when gravity
beats the electron degeneracy pressure.)
Since all type 1a supernovae start from the same mass, we know their absolute
luminosity. The characteristic shape of their
light curves are powered by the radioactive
decay of Ni56. Using these type 1a
supernovae as standard candles, 2 groups of astrophysicists determined that
the best fit to their data gave a finite value for (
, where
)
corresponding to a universe whose expansion is accelerating.
This value of
also agrees with the data from
Boomerang which is a recent survey of anisotropies in
the cosmic microwave background radiation.
The source of this accelerating force comes from the energy
density of the quantum vacuum or from something else. No one really knows.
One problem with field theory calculations which try to estimate
the cosmological constant which would arise from the vacuum energy
is that they find
. Actually the
vacuum energy diverges due to zero point energies (``the
ultraviolet catastrophe''), so this estimate
of
comes from putting in a short wavelength cutoff
of
cm.
2. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is the remnant of the
energy released by the Big Bang. Think of baking something in
your oven at home. After you turn off the oven, it cools down.
If you come back a few hours later, it may still be a little bit
warm and those few left over photons are the analog of the
cosmic microwave background radiation. The CMBR was discovered
in 1964 by 2 scientists at Bell Labs, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson,
who were working with an antenna that was to be used in communications
via satellite. Their antenna was sensitive to microwave radiation.
They found that there was a persistent background noise that they
couldn't get rid of. They even tried cleaning the bird droppings
from their antenna. Eventually they heard that Peebles and Dicke
at Princeton had theorized that the remnant of the Big Bang
should be observable and their colleagues
(Roll and Wilkinson) were setting up an experiment to look for
this remnant. Penzias and Wilson
then realized that they had detected the cosmic
microwave background, though their Nobel-prize winning paper is
modestly entitled ``A Measurement of Excess Antenna
Temperature at 4,080 Mc/s.''
Radio engineers describe radio noise in terms of a so-called
antenna temperature, which roughly corresponds to the black body radiation
temperature that would produce such noise. In fact the cosmic microwave
background radiation matches the blackbody spectrum of a blackbody
at a temperature of T= 2.73 K. It's often referred to as the
``3 degree blackbody radiation.'' The COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer)
satellite measured the radiation at various frequencies and found
that the deviations from a blackbody spectrum are less than 300 parts
per million. The only viable explanation for such perfect blackbody
radiation is the hot, dense conditions that are predicted to exist
at early times in the hot Big Bang model. The CMBR consists of photons
from when the universe was 300,000 years old. As expected, it is all
around us and does not come from a certain part of the sky. The
uniform isotropy is impressive. The anisotropy on angular scales
of 10o is about 30 K or
. Presumably
these anisotropies have been amplified by gravity over the years and have
given rise to
the large scale structure of the universe (large groupings of galaxies).
3. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
The final observational pillar of standard cosmology is Big Bang
nucleosynthesis. When the universe was seconds old and the temperature
was around 1 MeV a sequence of nuclear reactions led to the production
of the light elements D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li. (Hydrogen
is just a proton, so it doesn't count. At high temperatures,
the electrons are stripped off and there are just ionic nuclei.) Let
me sketch how nucleosynthesis goes. Deuterium
is made when a neutron and a proton come together; add a proton to
deuterium to get 3He; add another neutron to 3He
to get 4He; etc. Coulomb
barriers (electrostatic repulsion of additional protons) and the
lack of stable nuclei with mass numbers of 5 and 8 prevent further
nucleosynthesis. (Heavier elements were created in stars
and stellar explosions billions of years after the Big Bang.)
The abundance of the light elements observed in
the cosmos is consistent with that predicted by the model of
Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Almost all of the hydrogen and helium in
the universe is a product of the Big Bang. Observations indicate
that when stars form, they consist mostly of hydrogen
with about 20-30% helium. This is consistent with estimates based
on Big Bang nucleosynthesis. This then is further confirmation of
the Big Bang.
Evolution of the Universe
The history of the universe so far can be divided into 2 epochs: the
radiation dominated phase and the matter dominated phase.
=4.0 true in
timeline.eps
- Radiation Dominated Phase
The radiation dominated phase (
10,000 years,
3 eV) was when the energy density contained
in radiation and relativistic particles exceeded that in matter.
The scale factor
and the temperature decreased
as
1 MeV
(see appendix).
At the earliest times, the energy in
the universe consists of radiation and relativistic particle-antiparticle
pairs. When
,
pair creation from photons
makes particle-antiparticle pairs as abundant as photons.
The standard model of particle physics provides the input for our
understanding of what happened at
t=10-11 sec when
300
GeV. At this time the sea of relativistic particles includes the 6
species of quarks and antiquarks, leptons and antileptons
as well as the 12 gauge bosons
(photons, ,
Zo, and 8 gluons). When the temperature drops
below the mass of a particle species, those particles and their
antiparticles annihilate and disappear. As the temperature fell
below
200 MeV, a phase transition occurred from a
quark-gluon plasma to neutrons, protons, and pions, along with
the leptons, antileptons, and photons. At a temperature of
100 MeV, the muons and antimuons disappeared. When the
temperature was around 1 MeV, a sequence of events and nuclear reactions
began that ultimately resulted in the synthesis of D, 3He, 4He, and
7Li. During this time, since
0.5 MeV,
the last of the particle-antiparticle pairs, the electrons and positrons,
annihilated.
- Matter Dominated Phase
The matter dominated phase (
10,000 years,
3 eV) began when the energy density in matter
exceeded that in radiation. The cosmic scale factor began
to grow as
(see appendix).
Shortly after matter domination begins,
at a redshift of
,
the universe has cooled enough to
allow electrons and ions (mostly free protons) to combine into neutral
atoms. This occurs at
3000 K which is roughly 300,000
years after the beginning of the universe. Because neutral atoms
do not scatter photons nearly as much as charged particles (electric
and magnetic fields do not couple to neutral particles), matter
and radiation decouple. Thus the photons we see in blackbody
radiation have been traveling ballistically since this time.
We are still in the matter dominated phase. Over the last
13 billion years or so, the primeval inhomogeneities in the
density of matter have been amplified by gravity to form the
structures that we see today: galaxies, clusters of galaxies,
superclusters, great walls, and voids. A galaxy has a few hundred billion
stars and there are at least a hundred billion galaxies in the universe.
Light from a star on one edge of the galaxy takes about 100,000 years
to reach the opposite side. Our Milky Way galaxy is part of a local
group of some 30 galaxies. The Local Group extends some 4 million
light years across. Our Local Group is part of a supercluster of
galaxies some 150 million light years across. Our supercluster
is centered on the Virgo cluster which contains thousands of galaxies.
Outside the supercluster is a nearly galaxy-free region called a cosmic void.
Future of the Universe
Will the universe expand forever or will it eventually stop and
then contract? No one really knows. But we can describe the
different scenarios. Let's define
a critical density
where G is the gravitational
constant. corresponds to about 5 protons per cubic meter.
For simplicity let's first suppose that the
cosmological constant is zero. (This was a fine assumption until 1998.)
If the density of matter
and energy is less than the critical density ,
the universe will expand forever. We say that the universe has
negative curvature. General relativity relates gravity to a
geometric picture of spacetime. If the universe has
,
the expansion will eventually stop expanding and will contract. This
ends in the ``big crunch.'' In this case we say that the universe
has positive curvature. If
, we say that the universe
is flat. In this case the universe will expand forever, though the
expansion slows down (due to gravity) and eventually stops at
.
It is convenient to scale energy densities to the critical
density:
where we are summing over different contributions to the total
. For example, baryonic matter, photons, neutrinos,
the cosmological constant, etc. The different curvatures correspond
to
Sometimes a positively curved universe is called a closed universe
and a negatively curved universe is called an open universe. But this
nomenclature is only valid if the cosmological constant is zero.
In the case of a nonzero cosmological constant, things get more
complicated. For a flat or negatively curved universe,
the cosmological constant eventually dominates over the gravitational
pull of matter because the matter density is decreasing with
the expansion. Ultimately
the universe enters an exponential expansion phase driven
by the cosmological constant. This also occurs for a positively
curved universe if the cosmological constant is large enough. If
it isn't large enough, recollapse occurs.
Dark Matter
We don't know the density of energy and matter well enough to
know whether
is greater than, less than, or equal
to 1, though it's generally felt that
is close to 1.
The theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the measured abundance
of primordial deuterium implies that
the mass density contributed by baryons is
5%.
Together photons and neutrinos (assuming all 3 species are massless,
or very light,
eV) contribute a very small energy
density
. Most of the matter in
the universe is of unknown form and dark. This mystery matter is called
``dark matter.'' It's dark in the sense that it isn't in shining stars.
Stars and closely related material contribute
0.004. While we can't directly see the dark matter, we can observe
the effect of its gravitational pull on other objects. For example,
we can watch the motion of a galaxy in a cluster of galaxies and
deduce the gravitational potential that it is moving in by using
the virial theorem (KE
). From these observations,
we deduce that the galaxies in the cluster have more mass than we can
see.
In addition we can map out the rotational velocity v of a
galaxy as a function of distance r from the center. If m is the
mass of a star in the galaxy and M is the mass of the galaxy,
then roughly speaking we expect
Or
If most of the mass is near the center of the galaxy where most
of the luminous material is, then we expect the velocity
which is what happens with the velocity of planets
in our solar system. But what is observed is const with
respect to r, which
implies that the mass M of the galaxy increases linearly with r.
Since luminous matter doesn't increase linearly with r, it must
be dark matter that is responsible for the rotational behavior of
most galaxies.
Another observation involves gravitational lensing. Gravity bends
light, so a cluster of galaxies can bend the light from much more distant
galaxies. Close to the center of the cluster, lensing is strong
enough to produce multiple images; farther out, lensing distorts the
shape of distant galaxies. From its performance as a lens, we can deduce
the mass density of the cluster. Again we find that the mass is much
greater than than the luminous matter. Taking into account the large amount
of hot intracluster gas deduced from x-ray measurements, we estimate
. Recall that
. Thus
the total
.
Pulling this all together: stars contribute 0.4% of the critical
density, baryons contribute 5%, nonrelativistic (nonbaryonic) particles
of unknown type contribute 30%, and vacuum energy contributes 64% for
a total equaling the critical density. The unseen baryonic matter could
be in the form of diffuse gas or dark stars (faint, low mass stars;
white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes); we don't really know.
We also don't know what the nonbaryonic dark matter is. Particle
physics suggests 3 dark-matter candidates: a 10-5 eV axion;
a 10 GeV-500 GeV neutralino; and a 30 eV neutrino. Efforts are
currently underway to search for all this missing matter.
There are 2 basic types of dark matter: hot dark matter and cold
dark matter. If most of the matter is hot, e.g. 30 eV neutrinos,
then the structure of the universe formed from the top down: large
things, like superclusters, formed first, and fragment into smaller
objects such as galaxies. This is because fast moving neutrinos smooth
out density perturbations on small scales by moving from regions of high
density into regions of low density. On the other hand, cold dark matter
particles cannot move far enough to damp perturbations on small scales,
and structure then formed from the bottom up: galaxies, followed by
clusters of galaxies, and so on. Observations clearly indicate that
galaxies formed first (at red shifts of ), before superclusters
which are just forming today. That rules out hot dark matter and leaves
cold dark matter.
Fundamental Questions
There are a number of fundamental questions that are left unanswered
by the standard model of the Big Bang in which the universe expands
adiabatically (i.e., without changing its entropy).
- 1.
- Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry: The laws of physics are
very nearly symmetric with respect to matter and antimatter. Yet
everywhere we look, we see matter, not antimatter. If the early
universe had equal amounts of matter and antimatter, these would
have annihilated as the universe cooled, leaving only trace amounts
of nucleons and antinucleons. Instead what we see is a small net
baryon number. The ratio of baryons to photons is
.
A possible solution was suggested by Sakharov in 1967: baryon-number
violating and matter-antimatter symmetry violating interactions occurring
in a state of nonequilibrium allows for a small net baryon number to
develop. The Grand Unified Theories (GUTs)
of particle physics allow for
violation of baryon number (proton decay), and matter-antimatter
symmetry is known to be violated slightly in the neutral Kaon
system and in B meson systems. (CP violation at the level of 10-3).
- 2.
- The heat of the Big Bang: The entropy associated with the
CMBR and the three neutrino seas is enormous. Within the observable
universe the entropy is 1088 kB (the number of nucleons is
10 orders of magnitude smaller). Where did all the heat come from?
- 3.
- Origin of the Smoothness: The universe is very smooth and
isotropic. The anisotropy of the CMBR is tiny. Yet the different parts
of the universe are causally disconnected, i.e., different parts
of the universe have not had enough time to communicate with one another
given the speed of light. So why are these different parts so alike?
- 4.
- Origin of the Flatness:
Today it appears that
.
(The subscript o means
the value of
now.) The universe was even more flat in the past,
i.e.,
was even closer to one:
at 1 second.
To arrive at the universe we see today, the universe must have begun
very flat. If in the beginning
the universe was slightly above the critical density,
it would have collapsed from the gravity. If it was slightly below
,
matter and energy would have flown apart too fast to allow
condensation into stars and galaxies. Why is the universe so flat?
The flatness and smoothness problems are not indicative of any inconsistency
of the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, but they do require fine
tuning of the initial conditions. As stated by Collins and Hawking (1973),
the set of initial conditions that evolve to a universe qualitatively
similar to ours is of measure zero.
- 5.
- Origin of the Big Bang: Where did the Big Bang come from?
How did it arise?
Inflation
A possible solution to the last four questions is inflation.
The idea is that the
universe begins with a brief period of tremendous expansion (inflation)
in which the scale factor increases by 1027 in 10-32 seconds.
The precise details of this ``inflationary phase'' are not understood,
but in most models the exponential expansion occurs when
a scalar field that
represents or pervades the universe is initially displaced from the
old minimum of its potential energy curve and moves to a new minimum.
(Some models postulate a first or second order phase transition,
but other models, such as chaotic and stochastic
inflation, do not require a phase transition. The phase transition
models tend to have problems. For example, a second order phase
transition requires very fine tuning of the potential near the origin
as well as strong coupling of to other matter fields which would
tend to destroy the fine tuning. See the book by Peter Coles and
Francesco Lucchin, Cosmology: The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic
Structure for more details.)
Inflation blows up a small (subhorizon-sized) portion of the universe
to a size much greater than that of the observable universe today. Because
this tiny region was causally connected before inflation, it can be
expected to be smooth and homogeneous-including the very small portion
of it that is our observable part of the universe. Likewise, because
our Hubble volume (i.e., our observable part of the universe) is but
a small part of the region that inflated, it looks flat, regardless of
the initial curvature of the region that inflated which implies that
. This is analogous to saying that a tiny piece of a curved
line looks straight if the piece is small enough, no matter how curved the
line.
It is while this scalar field responsible for inflation rolls slowly down
its potential that the exponential expansion takes place. As the field
reaches the minimum of the potential energy curve, it overshoots and
oscillates about it. The quanta of these oscillations decay into lighter
particles which thermalize and provide the tremendous heat content of
the universe.
Quantum fluctuations arise in the scalar field that drives inflation;
they begin as truly microscopic (
cm).
However, they are stretched in size by the tremendous expansion during
inflation to astrophysical scales. (This results in fluctuations
in the local curvature of spacetime which are equivalent to fluctuations
in the gravitational field.) This gives rise to the inhomogeneities
seen in the distribution of energy and matter density in the universe.
A limit on the amount of anisotropy was set by the COBE observations of
the CMBR. Further refinements have been measured by Boomerang which
flew a balloon with a very sensitive detector around Antarctica.
To give you some idea of length scales, fluctuations on length scales
of 1 Mpc give rise to galaxies, on scales of 10 Mpc give
rise to clusters of galaxies, and on scales of 100 Mpc give rise
to great walls of clusters of galaxies.
Stellar Nucleosynthesis
As we mentioned earlier, the light elements such as hydrogen and helium
were produced by the Big Bang. This is called Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
The heavier elements are produced in stars and stellar explosions. I just
want to briefly mention how this goes. Stars are powered by fusion which
is a process whereby nuclei of lighter elements are fused together to
make heavier nuclei and energy is released in the process. For example
our sun produces most of its power by fusing 4 hydrogen atoms together to
make helium (
). Heavier elements such as
carbon and oxygen can be made as follows:
An particle is a 4He nucleus consisting of 2 protons and
2 neutrons.
The chain keeps going. Carbon and oxygen are crucial to living organisms.
It is an interesting coincidence that the nuclear energy levels are such
that we get both carbon and oxygen, rather than mostly one or the other.
If it was too easy to make oxygen, all the carbon would be turned into
oxygen. If it was too hard to make oxygen, there would be too much carbon
and not enough oxygen to sustain life.
=4.0 true in
COincidence.eps
Appendix
Critical Density
In this appendix we derive the expression for the critical density
using Newtonian mechanics. This is the density where the kinetic
energy of outward expansion is balanced by the inward pull of gravity.
Let's assume that the gravitational constant and that the
universe is flat (no curvature).
Conside the motion
of a galaxy of mass m by assuming that it sits on
the surface of a sphere of radius R(t). (One can also think
of R(t) as the cosmic scale factor.) The sphere has uniform
density and fixed mass M given by:
The gravitational
attraction of the mass inside the sphere produces the potential energy:
where m is the mass of the galaxy and
the gravitational constant
cm3/gm-sec2.
The velocity of this galaxy is given by the Hubble law as
where H is Hubble's constant (though it changes with time).
Thus its kinetic energy is given by
The total energy is then
The energy remains constant as the universe expands. When E=0, the kinetic
energy for expansion exactly balances the potential energy for contraction.
This is the condition for the critical density .
Thus the critical density is given by
Note that from eq. (15), we have
for a flat universe with . If the universe is not flat
and if
, then eq. (15) becomes
where
is the spatial curvature radius which grows as the
cosmic scale factor.
Expansion Time Scales
In this appendix we will show how the various parameters change with
time. In particular we want to show how the density ,
Hubble's constant H(t), and the cosmic scale factor R(t) change
as the universe evolves. We know that very close to t=0,
, which means that the kinetic and potential energies
were equal. So from eq. (15) we have
The characteristic expansion time is just the reciprocal of the Hubble
constant:
Notice that
and that
.
Now, how does vary with the scale factor R(t)? It's different
for the matter dominated and radiation dominated eras. In the matter
dominated era, the density is proportional to 1/volume:
On the other hand, in the radiation dominated era,
where is the energy of radiation of frequency . But
recall that the wavelength of the radiation goes with the cosmic
scale factor, i.e.,
. So
The other way to see that the energy density goes as 1/R(t)4 is
to recall that the total energy density for black body radiation
goes as T4 (see eq. (19) in lecture 4). Since the temperature Tgoes as 1/R(t),
. To summarize
where
Since
,
Hubble's law tells us that the velocity of a typical galaxy is
Since v=dR/dt, we have a differential equation
We can integrate this
We find
So, whatever the value of n, the time elapsed is proportional to
the change in
. So the time t required for the density
to drop from a very high value to a small value of is
Now recall that the density
. So we get
or
So
Since the temperature
(dimensional analysis:
),
we have
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Clare Yu
2002-12-05