Cosmological Hydrogen Recombination: The Effects of Extremely High-n Transitions and Forbidden Hydrogen Transitions

Details Cosmological Hydrogen Recombination: The Effects of Extremely High-n Transitions and Forbidden Hydrogen Transitions Cosmological Hydrogen Recombination: The Effects of Extremely High-n Transitions and Forbidden Hydrogen Transitions

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21536206g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #362.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.550

Physics

Atomic Physics

Scientific paper

Thanks to the ongoing Planck mission, a new window will be opened on the properties of the primordial density field, the cosmological parameters, and the physics of reionization. Much of Planck's new leverage on these quantities will come from temperature measurements at small angular scales and from polarization measurements. These both depend on the details of cosmological hydrogen recombination; use of the CMB as a probe of energies greater than 1016 GeV compels us to get the eV scale atomic physics right.
One question that remains is how high in hydrogen principle quantum number we have to go to make sufficiently accurate predictions for Planck. Using sparse matrix methods to beat computational difficulties, I have modeled the influence of very high (up to and including n=200) excitation states of atomic hydrogen on the recombination history of the primordial plasma, resolving all angular momentum sub-states separately and including, for the first time, the effect of hydrogen quadrupole transitions. I will review the basic physics, explain the resulting plasma properties, discuss recombination histories, and close by discussing the effects on CMB observables.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Cosmological Hydrogen Recombination: The Effects of Extremely High-n Transitions and Forbidden Hydrogen Transitions does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Cosmological Hydrogen Recombination: The Effects of Extremely High-n Transitions and Forbidden Hydrogen Transitions, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Cosmological Hydrogen Recombination: The Effects of Extremely High-n Transitions and Forbidden Hydrogen Transitions will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-963329