Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-03-30
Int.J.Mod.Phys.D18:2201-2207,2009
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
6 pages, 3 figures, Gravity Research Foundation essay
Scientific paper
10.1142/S021827180901603X
Structure in the Universe grew through gravitational instability from very smooth initial conditions. Energy conservation requires that the growing negative potential energy of these structures is balanced by an increase in kinetic energy. A fraction of this is converted into heat in the collisional gas of the intergalactic medium. Using a toy model of gravitational heating we attempt to link the growth of structure in the Universe and the average temperature of this gas. We find that the gas is rapidly heated from collapsing structures at around $z {\sim} 10$, reaching a temperature ${>} 10^6$K today, depending on some assumptions of our simplified model. Before that there was a cold era from $z\sim100$ to $\sim10$ in which the matter temperature is below that of the Cosmic Microwave Background.
Moss Adam
Scott Douglas
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