ASTR340

Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

Lecture 22 Problems with the Standard Model

The Standard Cosmological Model Problems with the Standard Model The Flatness Problem The Horizon Problem The Structure Problem The Relic Problem The Antimatter Problem Summary

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Standard Cosmological Model

The present standard model, the Big Bang model, was developed around three major pieces of experimental evidence: The expansion of the universe (discovered by E. Hubble in 1929). The 3K cosmic background radiation (showing that the Universe is isotropic and homogeneous Cosmological Principle). The hydrogen-helium abundance (perfect match between predictions for the abundance of the light elements and observations).

ASTR340

Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

Problems with the Standard Model

The standard cosmological model is the Big bang, and while the evidence supporting that model is enormous, it is not without problems. Some of the problems are: The Flatness Problem: Why is the Universe almost flat? The Antimatter Problem: Where is the missing antimatter? The Galaxy Formation Problem: How did structure emerge? The Horizon Problem: Are CMB structures causally connected?

ASTR340

Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Flatness Problem

Observations (e.g., galaxy counts, measurement of the deceleration of galaxies) show that the Universe is almost exactly flat. Such a geometry is a very special case. Of all possible numbers, = /crit is almost exactly 1. >0 =0 <0

We measure 1 within 1 percent or better, which is surprising. Why are we so close to this special case?

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Flatness Problem - continued

The Universe is either barely open or barely closed, or 'very nearly flat'. Analogy: A ball thrown up from the Earth slows down but it might never stops if the speed is close to the escape velocity. It might appear that you have thrown it with just the right velocity to go on forever, slowing toward zero velocity at infinite time and infinite distance. But as time progressed, it would become more and more evident if you had missed the escape velocity even by just a small amount. After 13.7 billion years of travel it still appeared that you had thrown it with just the right velocity. How likely is that?

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Flatness Problem - continued

This problem is serious. If 1 then its value changes with cosmic time. > 1: Universe grows larger & larger. < 1: Universe grows smaller & smaller. Why? Any departures from flatness should become exaggerated with time, and at this stage of the universe, tiny irregularities should have been much amplified.

ASTR340

Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Flatness Problem - continued

If the Universe is approximately flat now, it had to be extremely flat at early times. 1 now at t = 13.7 billion years means that at t = 1 sec can only differ from 1 by an amount of less than 1016. Right after the big bang, the density must have been equal to the critical density to within 1050! Conclusion: very special (and very unlikely) conditions were operating in the early Universe to give a flat Universe now. This is known as the flatness problem

ASTR340

Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Flatness Problem - continued

Is there a solution to the flatness problem? In the early 1980's, Alan Guth proposed that there was a brief period of extremely rapid expansion following the Planck time of 1043 seconds, called the "inflationary period". If the universe inflated by 20 to 50 orders of magnitude, then the properties of an extremely tiny volume which could have been considered to be intimately connected were spread over the whole of the known universe today, contributing both extreme flatness and the extremely isotropic nature of the cosmic background radiation.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Horizon Problem

Consider the 'particle horizon': A sphere surrounding a given point which is causally connected to that point. Analogy: horizon of a ship at sea.

If the Universe is 13.7 billion years ago, our particle horizon is 13.7 billion light years.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Horizon Problem - continued

Consider 3 locations in space, A, B, and C. This is how their particle horizons look like:

A and B are causally connected, but C is not causally connected to A and B.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Horizon Problem - continued

Lets go back to the 'decoupling epoch' when the cosmic background radiation was emitted ('surface of last scatter'). This occurred 380,000 years after the Big Bang. It implies that the particle horizon at that time was 380,000 light years across. This size-scale at the time of decoupling covers an angle of approx. 1 degree on the sky in our present Universe. This mean that patches of the CMB which are separated by more than 1 degree should not have been in causal contact at the time of decoupling. So why is the CMB smoother on scales larger than the particle horizon? This is the horizon problem.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Horizon Problem - continued

How does the CMB 'know' that is has to be so uniform across the sky?

T = 2.728 K How could the Universe be in thermal equilibrium on scales much larger than the particle horizon? At the time the photons were actually emitted, they would have been 100 times the age of the universe apart, or 100 times causally disconnected.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Horizon Problem - continued

Solution to the 'horizon problem': Inflation! The answer to the horizon problem from the inflationary point of view is that there was a period of incredibly rapid inflation very early in the big bang process which increased the size of the universe by 1020 to 1050. So what's the 'trick'? The present observable universe is "inside" that expansion. The radiation we see is isotropic because all that space "inflated" from a tiny volume and had essentially identical initial conditions.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Horizon Problem - continued

Solution to the 'horizon problem': Inflation!

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Structure Problem

The structure in the Universe (galaxies, clusters of galaxies, etc) is due to inhomogeneities in the early Universe. We see these seeds of cosmic structure as inhomogeneities in the CMB maps.

Red spots are a bit (1 part in a million) warmer than blue spots. These red spots have a higher density, and galaxy clusters can form due to gravitational collapse.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Structure Problem - continued

How did those inhomogeneities (little wrinkles in the CMB maps) get there? How come that they are just the right magnitude and size to produce the structure we see today? How is it possible to have the same kind of inhomogeneities spread throughout the entire Universe, despite the lack of causal contact between different parts of the early Universe? This is the structure problem.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Structure Problem - continued

Simulation of formation and growth of structure in the Universe.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Structure Problem - continued

Random non-uniformities in the expanding universe are not sufficient to allow the formation of galaxies. In the presence of the rapid expansion (inflation), the gravitational attraction is too slow for galaxies to form with any reasonable model of turbulence created by the expansion itself. The question of how the large-scale structure of the universe could have come into being has been a major unsolved problem in cosmology. We are forced to look to the period before 1 millisecond to explain the existence of galaxies, but we haven't reach that point observationally or theoretically.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Relic Problem

Analogy: Cooling of a liquid, freezing of water. Once the liquid reaches the freezing point the freezing will not occur smoothly and uniform over the entire extent of the liquid. Freezing will start at certain locations and crystals will start growing. When crystals eventually merge to form a solid, there will be dislocations where the crystals meet. This process of freezing is called a 'phase transition'.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Relic Problem - continued

The Universe also underwent a phase transition as the temperature fell below a certain threshold (freezing point). As the Universe undergoes a phase transition, a force will eventually 'freeze out'.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Relic Problem - continued

Phase transitions will start a certain locations and grow at the speed of light. Dislocations produced in the Universe as a results of different regions meeting. This produces 'topological defects', such as domain walls (2-D sheet-like structures) and cosmic strings (1-D string-like structures). None of these structures have been seen in CMB data of COBE and WMAP.

Dislocations in steel

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Relic Problem - continued

The interaction between particles and forces are related to 'quantum fields'. These quantum fields can undergo a phase transition (i.e., they freeze out). The non-uniform growth of topological defects can create exotic particles or magnetic monopoles. None of this has ever been observed. Why are there no magnetic monopoles? This is the relic problem (along with missing antimatter, see below)

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Antimatter Problem

In the early phase of the Universe, matter/antimatter pairs were created by energetic photons ('pair production', see Lecture 21).

An equal number of particles/antiparticles is therefore expected. By the time the universe is 1 millisecond old, the balance between matter and antimatter is fixed forever. However, we don't observe anti-stars or anti-galaxies.

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Antimatter Problem - continued

Anti-protons, anti-neutrons, and antielectrons have been discovered, but antimatter has only been observed in small quantities. The amount of antimatter in our galaxy was calculated to be less then one part in a hundred million. If there were an isolated system of antimatter in the universe, free from interaction with ordinary matter, no earthbound observation could distinguish its true content. The existence of such antimatter objects is pure speculation. Clearly there is some asymmetry in the way nature treats matter and antimatter. Possible solution: antimatter decays faster than matter ('CP symmetry violations' in the decay of particles by the weak interaction).

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

The Antimatter Problem - continued

Observation of small amounts of antimatter in our galaxy:

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Origin of the Universe

Spring 2006

Summary
The standard Big Bang model is a synergy of astrophysics and particle physics, successful in explaining most aspects of modern cosmology. There is a need for inflationary models, however, to solve the flatness, horizon, smoothness, etc. problems. Other problems have not been answered yet, such as the formation of structure in the Universe, missing monopoles, the nature of the dark matter, etc. More complex theories that unite gravity, strong and electroweak such as supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theories, might solve some of these questions, in combination of observing strategies to detect the missing mass.