- 3087 - COSMIC INFLATION - needed to explain the universe? What is Cosmic Inflation? Cosmic Inflation is a theory to help astronomers explain the observations they have of the Universe. The theory is that the Universe expanded faster than the speed of light very early in its evolution.
----------- 3087 -COSMIC INFLATION - needed to explain the universe?
- Cosmic Inflation would explain why the Universe appears the same in all directions, ( it is homogeneous ). It is the same temperature no matter which direction you look or from where you are standing, ( it is isotropic ).
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- Temperature is simply a measure of how active particles are. It is their average kinetic energy, or degree of vibration. The entire Universe appears to be the same temperature, it has reached thermal equilibrium. Therefore, what we observe must have been in contact with each other.
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- Here is the dilemma. If you look over the western horizon you can see 13.7 billion lightyears distance. If you look over the eastern horizon you can see 13.7 billion lightyears distance. Those two regions are 27.4 billion lightyears apart. There is no way one region could be in contact with the other region without traveling faster than the speed of light.
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- This could be explained if these regions were in contact long ago and rapid, faster than light, Inflation occurred. In that case what we see today is just a small volume of the actual Universe. The Universe appears geometrically Flat to us and the same density and temperature is seen in all directions.
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- The physics explanation for Inflation is that it was a phase transition that occurred shortly after the Big Bang. It was a phase transition of anti-gravity somewhat like the phase transition of water into ice. It happened in an instant of time.
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- We are experiencing anti-gravity today. We call it Dark Energy and think it is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the Universe we first observed in 1998.
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- The Inflation phase transition after the Big Bang occurred when the Universe was only 10^-43 seconds old. At that moment gravity separated out, or froze out, from the electro weak and nuclear forces. The anti-gravity scalar field then expanded, doubling over 100 times. That is 2^100 power, which is the same as 10^30 power.
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- The Universe grew from smaller than the size of a proton where everything was together to the size of a soccer ball where everything was separated by the expanding vacuum of space.
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- The rapid expansion of Inflation only lasted from 10^-35 to 10^-32 seconds. In 1000th of a second the space grew by over 30 magnitudes in radius. After that point the expansion of the Universe returned to its current expansion rate.
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- Radiation at first dominated gravity to slow the acceleration of expansion. Later, matter dominated to slow the acceleration of expansion. Later still, about half way through its evolution, anti-gravity became the dominant force to increase the rate acceleration in the expanding Universe. That is what we observe today. Dark Energy is dominant and now the Universe is expanding at an ever expanding rate.
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- The 10^-43 seconds when gravity separated out from the other 3 forces is called “Planck Time“. It is the smallest interval of time calculated by physicists. It is derived from three known constants in nature: the gravitational constant, the speed of light constant and the Planck constant.
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- The Planck Time of 10^-43 seconds is derived from the three known constants in nature: the gravitational constant, the speed of light constant and the Planck constant. If we look at the units of these three constants:
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---------------- G = meters^3/kilogram*seconds^2, c = meters / second,
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---------------- h = kilogram*meters^2 / second.
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- If you arrange these units into this formula, you are left with seconds.
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---------------- (G*h/2*pi*c^5)^.5
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- If you look at the magnitudes of these three constants:
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---------------- G = 6.7*10^-11,
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--------------- c = 3*10^8,
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--------------- h = 6.6*10^-34 and arrange them in the same formula you get 10^-43.
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- That is where the Planck Time of 10^-43 seconds comes from. All of the Planck Units of mass, time, and distance are calculated from these three natural constants in this way. That is the reason we say that Physics can not go deeper into the Big Bang beyond this short time. We have no math that works beyond this point.
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- At that point in time the temperature was 10^32 degrees Kelvin. After 10^-32 seconds, Inflation had stopped, and the Universe was the size of a soccer ball, the temperature had cooled to 10^27 Kelvin.
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- At this point the Strong Nuclear Force separated, froze out, from the electro weak forces. The Strong Nuclear Force is what affects the Quarks.
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- At 10^-6 seconds the expansion had cooled to 10^13 Kelvin. This lower temperature allowed the Strong Nuclear Force to collect the Quarks into protons and neutrons, and anti-protons and anti-neutrons.
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- At that point all the photons were high energy Gamma Rays. When the temperature and energy is this high, mass is routinely converted into energy and energy into mass according to E = mc^2. Electrons and positrons would collide and annihilate each other creating more Gamma Ray photons.
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- At one second, 10^0 second, the expansion had cooled to where particles and anti-particles could no longer be created out of the energy. A mystery remains when matter and anti-matter were frozen out why they were not exactly equal and why they did not all annihilate each other to return to 100% energy.
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- Somehow for every billion anti-particles there remained a billion and one particles. Somehow there was residue matter left over. And, we do not know where the residue anti-matter is today.
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- At 3 minutes, 180 seconds, the matter collected protons and neutrons to become atomic nuclei of hydrogen, helium, and a little lithium. These are the 3 lightest elements.
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- The heavier elements above lithium were not formed until millions of years later when massive stars formed, died as supernova, and, their fusion spread the heavier elements through interstellar space. The atomic nuclei were still ionized, positively charged particles.
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- At 10,000 years, 3*10^11 seconds, radiation, or the effect of photons, was greater than the effects of matter. After 30,000 years matter became more dominant on its affect on gravitation. At this time matter was still ionized.
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- All the atomic nuclei were without the electrons in orbit to make them neutral. These positive ions had the affect of scattering the photons making the whole plasma opaque.
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- It was not until 380,000 years that the ions began to collect their electrons and become neutral atoms. It took 100,000 years for the complete process to become hydrogen, helium and a few lithium neutral atoms.
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- When the environment became neutral photon scattering stopped and the Gamma Ray photons escaped the opaque plasma clouds and expanded into space as free photons. The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, the CMB, that we see today are these same photons.
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- The photons came from the surface of this opaque plasma 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Just like viewing a cloud in the sky you see the surface of the cloud. Beyond the surface the light photons are scattered by the atoms of water vapor and the depth of the cloud is opaque. You can only see the outer surface of the cloud.
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- After 380,000 years , 1.2*10^13 seconds, the expansion has reduced the temperature to 3,000 Kelvin. It was this lower temperature that allowed the electrons to be captured by the nuclei and the atoms to become neutral. It was the neutral environment that allowed the photons to expand without scattering.
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- Today these same photons, existing in space today, are occupying every cubic meter of space in every direction. Each cubic meter contains 400,000,000 microwave photons. In contrast there is only one hydrogen atom, on average, in each cubic meter of space.
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- Because Inflation occurred the Universe is much, much bigger than the Observable Universe we can see. The tiny volume, relatively, of the Universe that we observe appears to be spatially Flat. Just like the spherical Earth appears spatially Flat to the horizons we can see standing on the surface in Santa Rosa.
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- In the Flat Universe the temperature is the same in all directions, the density is the same in all directions, the energy is the same in all directions. In our small volume of the Universe it appears to be uniform, homogeneous, and isotropic. The entire volume is in thermal equilibrium. This is the primary reason astronomers support the theory of Cosmic Inflation.
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- By using the calculations from Inflation we also get the exact ratios of hydrogen to helium to lithium that we see today. When we expand the fluctuations of quantum sub-atomic uncertainties to the surface of the CMB we get the expected one degree of temperature fluctuations that we see today in the CMB. That one arc-degree at 380,000 years would expand today to be the scale of galaxies and clusters of galaxies that we see 13,700,000,000 years later, 10^18 seconds later.
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- Galaxies began forming 600,000,000 years after the Big Bang and clusters of galaxies at 3,000,000,000 years after. Our solar system and Earth started forming at 9,100,000,000 years after ( 4,600,000,000 years ago).
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- Our Sun is likely a second, or third, generation star. The one or two previous stars exploded into supernova with their fusion releasing heavier elements into the interstellar medium.
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- These same star formations and star deaths (supernovae) are still going on today in our Milky Way Galaxy. We live in interesting times.
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March 11, 2021 COSMIC INFLATION 824 3079
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