Exploring the Early Universe
Guiding Questions
The Isotropy Problem
The newborn universe may have undergone a brief period of vigorous expansion
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Inflation explains why the universe is nearly flat and the 2.725-K microwave background is almost perfectly isotropic
Inflation was one of several profound changes that occurred in the very early universe
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During inflation, all the mass and energy in the universe burst forth from the vacuum of space
As the early universe expanded and cooled, most of the matter and antimatter annihilated each other
The Origin of Matter - Nucleosynthesis
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A background of neutrinos and most of the helium in the universe are relics of the primordial fireball
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Galaxies are generally located on the surfaces of roughly spherical voids
Galaxies formed from density fluctuations in the early universe
Astronomers use supercomputers to simulate how the large-scale structure of the universe arose from primordial density fluctuations
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Models based on dark energy and cold dark matter give good agreement with details of the large-scale structure
Theories that attempt to unify the physical forces predict that the universe may have 11 dimensions
Key Words
Author: Michael Cohen
E-mail: mrcohe@ship.edu
Homepage: http://physics.ship.edu/~mrc/