Thermodynamics in the Big Bang

Bjrn Schenke
06/04/2003
Conditions in the beginnig...
Since the present-day expansion will cause
density to decline in the future, conditions in
the past must have corresponded to high
density and thus to high temperature.

So in the early phases of creation, energy was
sufficient to create huge numbers of massive particles
and antiparticles, hence there was a lot of annihilation
that created gamma rays (highly energetic photons).
So the photons we see were created in the first second
after the Big Bang.
However, the photons actually trace the condition of
the Universe at age 300,000 years. At this time we
say matter decoupled from radiation.

Conditions in the beginnig...
Conditions in the Beginning
If subsequently the temperature drops,
p+e-H (confusingly called recombination)
and the interactions stop - allowing the
photons to escape (de-coupling).
At some point in the past the matter was in
thermal equilibrium with the radiation.
How? - If the gas is ionised into a plasma of
protons and electrons, Thompson scattering
would allow the photons and electrons to
interact.
Recombination and Decoupling
p
e
-

p
p
p
e
-

e
-

e
-





H
H
H
H




H

z
T
t
a recombination
de-coupling
Conditions in the beginnig...
Lets first consider the situation, that the many
interactions among the photons, electrons and
nucleons under extreme pressures and
temperatures create thermal equilibrium (TE).

How can we describe that situation?
In TE, macroscopic state variables T, P,
determine equilibrium distribution of particles in
quantum states.
Number and energy density
2
3
0
p
N 4 p
n(T, ) (T, ) g dp
V exp( ( )) 1 (2 )

t
= =
}
| c t
where g is the degeneracy factor.
It can be derived (see appendix)
c 1 = =
2
2
p
3
0
p
4 p
u(T, ) c g dp
exp( ( )) 1 (2 )

t
= = c
}
| c t
Number and energy density
2
p
3
0
p
4 p
u(T, 0) g dp
exp( ( )) 1 (2 )

t
= c
}
| c t
1
B
k T
|
=
2
4
7
u(T, 0) g T
830
t
=
p
x |c = with
For radiation, we get
For fermions
3
3 x
2
4 4 4
4 x
B
(2 ) e 1
0
g k T dx g T
30

t
t
t
= =
}
4
aT =
4
7
aT
8
=
Pressure
2 2
3
0
p
4 p p
P(T, ) g dp
exp( ( )) 13 (2 )

t
=
}
| c c t
n pv
P
3
=
p
,where v =
c
2
n p
so P
3
=
c
Entropy
To derive the entropy of the thermal
background, one can note, that the energy and
entropy are extensive quantities, so
S S
etc.
V V
c
=
c
The first law of thermodynamics for =0 is
dE TdS PdV =
E E S S
dV dT T dV T dT PdV
V T V T
c c
| | | |
+ = +
| |
c c
\ . \ .
Entropy
Equating the dV and the dS parts gives

and .

Using the integral for the pressure and the energy
density, the entropy is:
E S
T
T T
c c
=
c c
E PV
S
T
+
=
2 2
3
0
p
4 V p p
S g dp
exp( ( )) 1 T 3 T (2 )

| | t c
= +
}
|
| c c t
\ .
Entropy
In the ultrarelativistic limit, where , this
integral becomes
p c
S 3.602Nk for bosons =
S 4.202Nk for fermions =
So, for radiation, the entropy is just proportional
to the number of particles.
Thats why the ratio of photon to baryon number
densities is sometimes called the
entropy per baryon.
Entropy
The radiation entropy density
is very large in practice.
The energy density is

For T=2.728, inserting the cosmological density
in terms of and h, gives the entropy per unit
mass
u P 4 u
s
T 3T
+
= =
4 16 1 3
u aT , where a 7.56 10 JK m

= =
( )
1
12 2 1 1
S
1.09 10 h JK kg
M


= O
Entropy
S/M for water at 300K warmed by 1K is only



The irreversible microscopic processes are
overwhelmed by the huge entropy in the
microwave background.

This makes it a good approximation to treat the
expansion of the universe as adiabatic and reversible.
1 1
14JK kg

Temperature in expanding universe
So S remains constant during the expansion
of the universe.

Since



for a relativistic gas.
3 3
4
S aT V T V const
3
= =
( )
1
3
1 1
T V 1 z
a

= + ( )
T 1 z +
In agreement with what we found in lecture 6.
Temperature in expanding universe
For a non-relativistic gas we have because of


and the fact that the 1 in the denominator can be negclected:
2
3
0
p
4 1
n g dpp n, n
exp( ( )) 1 (2 )

t
= =
}
| c t
2
kT
p
n e , where and p k
2m
c

c = =
( )
2
2 2
For constant n : T a 1 z

+
2
2
B
h
2m k T
n e .

( )
2
T 1 z +
Cooling laws
Matter cools more strongly with decreasing z
than radiation. But as long as the two
are lightly coupled. (Up to , the
recombination era) (See also lecture 7)

So for we have
all cooling with the
same
( )
T 1 z +
m
T T

3
1 z 10 +
11 9
10 K T 5 10 K > >
e e
, e , e , , , ,
+

v v v v
e e
, , ,

v v v v are decoupled.
Cooling laws
Neutrinos are in equilibrium, mainly via the
interaction

They decouple at , when the time-
scale for the weak interactions becomes larger
than the Hubble time.
e e
+
v + v +
10
T 10 K ~
Cooling laws
Then, at
can no longer be maintained in equilibrium with
photons. Old pairs annihilate and no new pairs
are produced.
This gives a major boost to which we can
estimate:

We have , so


9 2
B e
T 5 10 K (k T m c ) ~
-
e and e
+
T

S 0 A =
V 4
S u const
T 3
| |
= =
|
\ .
Cooling laws
( )
post (post )
post
4 V
S u
3T

=
( )
prior
e e
prior
4 V
S u u u
3T
+

= + +
4 3
prior prior prior
prior
4 V 7 7 11
S 1 aT aT V
3T 8 8 3
| |
= + + =
|
\ .
can be shown to be
e e
u and u
+
4
7
aT
8

3
post post
4
S aT V
3
=
Cooling laws
4 3
prior
4 V 7 7 11
S 1 aT aT V
3 T 8 8 3
| |
= + + =
|
\ .
3
post post
4
S aT V
3
=
1
3
3 3
prior post post prior
11 4 11
S 0 T T T T
3 3 4
| |
A = = =
|
\ .
post prior
T 1.4T
Cooling laws
According to this calculation, at the current epoch
T 2.7K and T 1.9K
v
=
because the decoupled neutrinos receive no boost!
If we consider Hydrogen alone, recombination can be described
by the Saha-equation (for its derivation see eg. Peacock (p. 285):
( )
( )
3
2
B
13.6eV
2
k T
e B e
3
e
2 m k T x 1
e
1 x n
2

t
=

t
where is the equilibrium ionization fraction.
e
x
Temperature at Recombination
h is the Hubble constant in units of 100 km/s/Mpc
H p
n n n = + is the total number density of the protons.
If we define recombination as an ionization fraction ,
we get as the temperature at recombination
e
x 0.5 =
B R
k T 0.3eV ~
R
T 3700K ~
If we define the end of recombination by the
condition that the mean free path of the photons
equals the Hubble radius,

(interaction rate for Thomson-scattering)




we get
Temperature at Recombination
R
T 3000K ~
e T
n c

I = o
1
c

= I
1
cH

=
Temperature at Recombination
Why does this differ so much from the 13.6eV ionization energy?

1) Photons vastly outnumber protons/electrons by a factor of
As a result the high-energy tail of the blackbody spectrum can
continue to ionize even once the temperature of the peak has
fallen below 13.6 eV.

2) Also one does not need to ionize directly from the ground
state. One is really limited by the number of photons available for
the Ly transition (10.2 eV) since there are high quantities of
lower energy photons to complete the ionization.
10
10
History of Temperature
T 3000K =
9
T 5 10 K =
10
T 10 K ~
1.4 T
v

Summary
In the Hot Big Bang Model, we can describe
the conditions in the early stages using
thermodynamics.
The expansion of the universe can be
considered adiabatic and reversible due to the
high entropy in the microwave background.
Using that and taking into account the
interactions of the different particles, we can
find cooling laws for each type of particle.
Appendix
Equilibrium occupation numbers
Occupation probability is the average
number of particles in a state with energy

But how do (did) we find them?
( )
p
n c
p
c
Consider a system of N particles, of which are in the same
state i.
This macrostate consists of microstates.

This is proportional to the statistical weight of the macrostate.
We are looking for the macrostate with the biggest statistical
weight, to get average occupancies.
i
M
1 2 n
N!
M !M ! M !

So we just have to maximize .

Its easier to maximize , because then we can

make use of the Stirling formula:

Applying this, we find that the quantity to maximize is




Equilibrium occupation numbers
1 2 n
N!
M !M ! M !
1 2 n
N!
ln
M !M ! M !
(
(

ln N! Nln N (for large N) ~
i
n
M
i i i N
i 1
p lnp (with p )
=
=

One defines to be the

entropy of the system.

Maximizing the entropy under the constraints
and using the method of Lagrange multipliers gives:


where

and is one of the Lagrange multipliers. It turns out, that

Equilibrium occupation numbers
n
B i i B i
i 1
S k p lnp k lnp
=
= =

( )
23
J
B K
k 1.38 10

=
i i
i
p E c =

i
i
p 1 =

i
i
e
p
Z
c
=
i
i
Z e
c
=

B
1
k T
=
Considering a variable number of particles, there is one more
constraint: , where N is the variable number of
particles.

Here we get .

(the grand canonical partition function)

Equilibrium occupation numbers
N,i
i
p N N =

N,i
( N)
N,i
Z e
| c
=


From we can get the number of particles





Equilibrium occupation numbers
N,i
( N)
N,i
Z e
| c
=

1 dln Z
N(T, V, )
d
| |
=
|
|
\ .
Comes from the properties of
the grand canonical potential:





B
E TS N
d SdT pdV Nd
k Tln Z
u =
u =
u =
Evaluating Z for Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein particles, gives
the following results for N:



( )
( )
p
p
1
N T, V, 2
exp ( ) 1
=

| c +
( )
( )
p
p
1
N T, V,
exp ( ) 1
=

| c
Number and energy density
2
3
0
p
N 4 p
n(T, ) (T, ) g dp
V exp( ( )) 1 (2 )

t
= =
}
| c t
where g is the degeneracy factor.
Substituting the integral over momentum space
for the sum and generalizing, one gets:
c 1 = =
2
2
p
3
0
p
4 p
u(T, ) c g dp
exp( ( )) 1 (2 )

t
= = c
}
| c t
Radiation domination
First the universe was radiation dominated.
How can we see that?

Lecture 4:
from Friedmann equations:

choose EOS to be

, so


( )
3 2
d
a 3a p
da
=
p = e
( )
3 2
d
a 3a
da
= e
3 3
a
e

Radiation domination
for a nonrelativistic gas, the pressure is negligible:



for relativistic matter



3
nr
0 and a

e=
4
r
1
and so a
3

e=
So before the densities
crossed over, radiation
dominated.
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