If there is an electric charge imbalance, signatures would lead to anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Shown here is the ionized plasma (L) before the CMB is emitted, followed by the transition to a neutral Universe (R) that’s transparent to photons. A charge asymmetry in that early epoch is constrained even more tightly: to be no greater than one electron for every 10 32 electrons-and-protons back at that time.Ī Universe where electrons and protons are free and collide with photons transitions to a neutral one that’s transparent to photons as the Universe expands and cools. This occurred even earlier in the Universe’s history: during the first few minutes, or approximately a redshift of 400 million. And finally, we can look at the abundances of the light elements, which arose extremely early on due to the physics of big bang nucleosynthesis.If there was a charge asymmetry back then, it too, was smaller than one electron for every 10 29 electrons-and-protons that existed back then. Instead, the leftover light we see from back then was last emitted from a hot electron-and-nuclei-based plasma from a redshift of 1089, or an age of the Universe of ~380,000 years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |