Cosmic Microwave Background
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Christian: Cosmic Microwave Background April 17, 2020 Monday, April 13, 2020 Christian final report: Cosmic Microwave Background Cosmic Microwave Background Hey everyone, here is my presentation on the early universe. Will try to answer any questions asap. Adam Q & A: Q Clayton: Good presentation Christian. On slide 13 you mention that an increase in baryons and and photons would mean a decrease in neutrons, does this happen because the neutrons decay into a baryons and photons, or is there another process that happen to cause these increases and decreases? A Christian: The fundamental difference between isocurvature and adiabatic perturbation is that isocurva- ture perturbations maintain a homogeneous density, and the perturbations are only related to entropy, while adiabatic perturbations induce inhomogeneities in the spatial curvature. I believe that you’re right in saying that a neutron decaying into a photon and proton would maintain the criteria for an isocurvature perturbation, but I’m sure there are other weak interactions that would also. Q Noah: Great presentation, Christian! I have some questions regarding slide 17. Are there cold spots in the CMB that are not caused by the presence of large voids? If so, what is attributed to be their source? Also, are there hot spots in the CMB? A Christian: The difficult thing about cold spots is that we’re not actually sure where they come from. Some studies indicate voids and smaller galaxy concentrations in the WMAP Cold Spot (the main CMB Cold Spot), but different surveys conflict with this observation, and it is generally accepted that the void necessary to explain such an anomoly would be exceptionally large, 3 orders of magnitude larger in volume than typical voids. Other explanations seem even stranger though, including the idea that the WMAP Cold Spot is the imprint of another universe caused by quantum entanglement. Q Brock: Going off Noahs question a little bit. You talk in slide 16 about the Sachs Wolfe effect. And then in 17 you talk about how these effects explain the cold spots? If this Sachs Wolfe effect cause some of the wells would this not lead to a spot of warmer radiation? Maybe I just dont fully understand. A Christian: To clarify, gravitationally attractive bodies cause potential troughs, while empty space is actually a potential peak. This is because light and matter fall into gravitational wells. So the cold spots could be explained by super voids that photons have to "climb." Due to the accelerated expansion of space, they wouldn’t get all of this energy back after passing through the void, and would be colder. JW: Excellent presentation, Christian! Fascinating discussion of anisotropies, hot and cold spots, Sachs Wolfe, and voids. 1 Have I understood correctly? CMB photons passing near matter during expansion can pick up some of the expansion energy - sort of a gravitational boost, with help from expansion. Then in a void, photons wouldn’t get these boosts, so voids would be cooler? I have to clarify some of the particle physics: first, neutrons ARE baryons. A baryon is any particle made up of three quarks. Note also that neutrons do not decay directly into photons. Neutrons decay into a proton, an electron, and a neutrino. Often there is also a photon, usually radiated by the electron as it decelerates. A Christian: The mechanism for the Sachs Wolfe effect is a little hard for me to understand intuitively. The way I imagine it is that, according to the light, a potential well is not symmetrical. It’s a steeper curve going in than going out, such that the energy of the light 1 light-year before the void is greater than the energy 1 light-year after passing through. You could imagine the same thing for a potential peak, so that light would have more energy one light-year after passing through than it did one light before passing through. That might be the same thing that you’re saying, but I’m not sure. I’ve included a gif which might help. (It does, but I can’t get it to work here! JW) JW: Nice gif! Yes, I think we’re saying roughly the same thing. Suppose we have a mass concentration many light years across. If there were no expansion, the light would “fall” in, gaining energy, then climb back out while losing the same amount of energy. With the universe expanding, the mass concentration is smoothing out, becoming less of a potential well. The light falls in, gaining energy, but by the time it climbs out the climb has smoothed some and it doesn’t lose as much climbing out as it gained falling in. So a high density region would show up hotter than avereage in the CMB. Averaged over the entire history of the light, there’s a net average energy gain because of the mass passed en route. But if the light passed through a substantial void, it will gain less than this average amount of energy and so the CMB will appear cooler. 2.