Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Apr 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997aps..apr..k103t&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, APS/AAPT Joint Meeting, April 18-21, 1997, abstract #K'.103
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The hot big-bang cosmology provides a reliable account of the Universe from about 0.01 sec until the present. It holds that the cosmic structure that we see today -- galaxies, clusters of galaxies, superclusters, voids and great walls -- arose through the gravitational amplification of small (part in 10^5) variations in the density of matter which were present very early on. The theory of big-bang nucleosynthesis, which is one of the pillars of the hot big-bang model, indicates that ordinary matter (baryons) accounts for only about 5% of the critical density, while observations indicate that the total matter density, the bulk of which exists in the form of the ubiquitous and mysterious dark matter, is at least 20% of the critical density (and perhaps as high as the critical density). The origin of the density inhomogeneities and the nature of the dark matter are the two most pressing issues in cosmology today. Inflation is an expansive theory of the early Universe that squarely addresses both. Inflation holds that bulk of the dark matter exists in the form of slowly moving elementary particles left over from the earliest moments (referred to as cold dark matter) and that the density inhomogeneities originated as quantum fluctuations on scales of around 10-23 cm and were stretched to astrophysical scales by the tremendous expansion that took place during inflation. This bold hypothesis is being tested by a flood of cosmological observations, including measurements of the temperature anisotropy of the Cosmic Background Radiation, large (redshift) surveys of the distribution of galaxies, deep images of the Universe provided by the Hubble Space and Keck Telescopes, and direct searches for the particle dark matter in our own Milky Way galaxy. Should inflation and cold dark matter prove correct, our understanding of the Universe would be extended back to 10-32 sec and a window on physics at energies of 10^14 GeV would be opened.
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