scholarly journals “The Lucky Start Toward Today’s Cosmology”? Serendipity, the “Big Bang” Theory, and the Science of Radio Noise in Cold War America

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-193
Author(s):  
Kendrick Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Radio Noise ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Archival Record ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Microwave Communications ◽  
The Big Bang

The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation—an inflection point in postwar cosmology—has not lacked chroniclers, but few have drawn deeply upon the available archival record. Many accounts emphasize the serendipitous manner in which the radiation was detected. This article redefines the relative contributions of luck, skill, and circumstance to the discovery by thickening the contexts in which it occurred. In its emphasis upon the material conditions of scientific enquiry, the development of technical expertise, and the permeability of disciplinary boundaries, the article situates the discovery in the sort of explanatory context more familiar from histories of Cold War nuclear and electronics research, where funds flowed freely across a broad front of institutions and subject fields, underwriting innovation and exchange, and incentivizing the instrumentalization of basic knowledge to address real world problems—in this case, microwave radio noise. It was not research to resolve the “big-bang”/“steady-state” controversy that pulled the radiation within range of detection, but a protean technoscientific program to improve signal-to-noise ratios. The accumulation of proficiency in microwave communications at Bell Laboratories, where the radiation was detected, was as significant to the breakthrough as the expertise in theoretical astrophysics available at Princeton, where the Bell Labs measurements were linked to the “big bang.” Princeton physicists, led by Robert Dicke, had already embarked on their own independent effort to detect the radiation, but evidence suggests they may not have succeeded absent the instrumental contributions made by Bell Labs.

Primal Emergence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Culliney ◽  
David Jones
Keyword(s):  
Background Radiation ◽  
Quantum Turbulence ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
Catalytic Potential ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Nuclear Synthesis ◽  
The Big Bang

Since the Big Bang, the universe’s inflation and its aftermath might be called the “creation story” according to science, in which tremendously variegated order and deterministic pattern propagated from a cosmic seed of perfect uniformity and smoothness. The formative properties of matter and energy were forged through initial quantum turbulence and an emergent principle of attraction that seems to pervade all of nature. As it emerged out of simplicity, the universe adopted a modus operandi that we call the cooperative constant, initially manifested in physical forces, especially gravity, and progressively complemented by chemistry. From an evolutionary point of view, an emergent catalytic potential, an attraction to cooperate, or participate in heterogeneity—which becomes a sine qua non for the existence of life—is widely characteristic of matter in our universe. This tendency is now found at the heart of the most progressive systems of which we are aware. Chapter One weaves its cosmological story through leading theories and revelations in astrophysics including primordial quantum turbulence, the multiverse, recombination, and the origin of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), also the enigmas of dark matter and dark energy, and nuclear synthesis of the elements of life within stars.

scholarly journals Large Scale Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background

1974 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. B. Partridge
Keyword(s):  
Angular Distribution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Cosmological Data ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

It is now generally accepted that the microwave background radiation, discovered in 1965 (Penzias and Wilson, 1965; Dicke et al., 1965), is cosmological in origin. Measurements of the spectrum of the radiation, discussed earlier in this volume by Blair, are consistent with the idea that the radiation is in fact a relic of a hot, dense, initial state of the Universe – the Big Bang. If the radiation is cosmological, measurements of both its spectrum and its angular distribution are capable of providing important – and remarkably precise – cosmological data.

scholarly journals No “explosion” in Big Bang cosmology: teaching kids the truth of what cosmologists really know

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S260) ◽  
pp. 666-669
Author(s):  
Alejandro Gangui
Keyword(s):  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Scientific Model ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Distant Galaxies ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
The Media ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Big Bang

AbstractCommon wisdom says that cosmologists are smart: they have developed a theory that can explain the “origin of the universe”. Every time an astro-related, heavily funded “big-science” project comes to the media, naturally the question arises: will science –through this or that experiment– explain the origin of the cosmos? Can this be done with the LHC, for example? Will this dream machine create other universes? Of course, the very words we employ in cosmology reinforce this misconception: so Big Bang must be associated with an “explosion”, even if a “peculiar” one, as it took place nowhere (there was presumably no space before the beginning) and happened virtually in no time (supposedly, space-time was created on this peculiar –singular– event). Right, the issue sounds confusing. Let us imagine what kids may get out of all this.We have recently presented a series of brief astronomy and cosmology books aimed at helping both kids and their teachers in these and other arcane subjects, all introduced with carefully chosen words and images that young children can understand. In particular, Volume Four deals with the Big Bang and emphasizes the notion of “evolution” as opposed to the –wrong– notion of “origin” behind the scientific model. We then explain some of the pillars of Big Bang cosmology: the expansion of space that drags away distant galaxies, as seen in the redshift of their emitted light; the build-up of light elements in a cooling bath of radiation, as explained by primordial nucleosynthesis; and the existence and main features of the ubiquitous cosmic microwave background radiation, where theory and observations agree to a highly satisfactory degree.Of course, one cannot attempt to answer the “origins” question when it is well known that all theories so far break down close to this origin (if there was actually an origin). It is through observations, analyses, lively discussions and recognition of the basic limitations of current theories and ideas, that we are led to try and reconstruct the past and predict the future evolution of our universe. Just that. Sound science turns out to be much more attractive when we tell the truth of what we really know.

On the cosmic background radiation and the age of the Universe

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-361
Author(s):  
Leandro Meléndez Lugo
Keyword(s):  
Background Radiation ◽  
Cosmic Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Dispersion Process ◽  
Cosmic Background ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Age Of The Universe ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

A basic fundamental analysis indicates that any radiation emitted by remote objects, such as galaxies and quasars, has only a limited age in comparison with that of the Universe. The radiation emitted by such objects thousands of millions of years ago is the oldest one that can be detected. Any previous radiation emitted by these bodies during their dispersion process resulting from the Universe expansion cannot be detected. It is shown on the basis of this analysis that the age of the Universe is much greater than that established as 13,700 millions of years and that the cosmic microwave background radiation must have a source other than the Big Bang.

scholarly journals Revisiting cosmic microwave background radiation using blackbody radiation inversion

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Koustav Konar ◽  
Kingshuk Bose ◽  
R. K. Paul
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Distribution ◽  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Blackbody Radiation ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Background Spectrum ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Mathematical Process

AbstractBlackbody radiation inversion is a mathematical process for the determination of probability distribution of temperature from measured radiated power spectrum. In this paper a simple and stable blackbody radiation inversion is achieved by using an analytical function with three determinable parameters for temperature distribution. This inversion technique is used to invert the blackbody radiation field of the cosmic microwave background, the remnant radiation of the hot big bang, to infer the temperature distribution of the generating medium. The salient features of this distribution are investigated and analysis of this distribution predicts the presence of distortion in the cosmic microwave background spectrum.

scholarly journals Measurement and Implications of the Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum

1996 ◽  
Vol 168 ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
John C. Mather
Keyword(s):  
Background Radiation ◽  
Far Infrared ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Scale Invariant ◽  
Background Spectrum ◽  
Nasa Goddard Space ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Infrared Background ◽  
Microwave Radiometers ◽  
The Big Bang

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) was developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to measure the diffuse infrared and microwave radiation from the early universe. It also measured emission from nearby sources such as the stars, dust, molecules, atoms, ions, and electrons in the Milky Way, and dust and comets in the Solar System. It was launched 18 November 1989 on a Delta rocket, carrying one microwave instrument and two cryogenically cooled infrared instruments. The Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) mapped the sky at wavelengths from 0.01 to 1 cm, and compared the CMBR to a precise blackbody. The spectrum of the CMBR differs from a blackbody by less than 0.03%. The Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR) measured the fluctuations in the CMBR originating in the Big Bang, with a total amplitude of 11 parts per million on a 10° scale. These fluctuations are consistent with scale-invariant primordial fluctuations. The Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) spanned the wavelength range from 1.2 to 240 μm and mapped the sky at a wide range of solar elongation angles to distinguish foreground sources from a possible extragalactic Cosmic Infrared Background Radiation (CIBR). In this paper we summarize the COBE mission and describe the results from the FIRAS instrument. The results from the DMR and DIRBE were described by Smoot and Hauser at this Symposium.

scholarly journals The question on origin of the universe and Big Bang

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 67-70
Author(s):  
Krishna Raj Adhikari
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
Physics Department ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Origin Of The Universe

School of thought is the theory of creation (theism) and school of thought deals with the random chance of evolution (atheism) about the origin of the universe and origin of the life. In the race of proof of the hypothesis, the theism has no scientific evidence and reliable proof, on the other hand atheism based on the scientific observable evidence. The latest theory of origin of the universe by Big Bang is more believable and supported by some scientific evidence such as Doppler effect on light, Hubble observation and result of the expanding the universe and observation of the cosmic microwave background radiation(CMBR). Paper briefly discussing about the origin of the universe and the Bing Bang.Key words: Big bang; Doppler; Cosmic microwave background radiation(CMBR)The Himalayan Physics Department of Physics, PN Campus, Pokhara Nepal Physical Society, Western Regional ChapterVol.2, No.2, May, 2011Page: 67-70Uploaded Date: 1 August, 2011

On Atomic Diffusion and the Cosmological Lithium Abundance

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S298) ◽  
pp. 407-407
Author(s):  
Pieter Gruyters ◽  
Andreas J. Korn ◽  
Paul S. Barklem
Keyword(s):  
Globular Clusters ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Stellar Structure ◽  
Atomic Diffusion ◽  
Green Line ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Lithium Abundance ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation

When it comes to lithium in late-type stars, atomic diffusion (AD) refers to the slow gravitational settling below the convective zone. Richard, Michaud & Richter, J. (2005) computed the influence of diffusion on the lithium abundance with different additional mixing (AddMix) parameters, after 13.5 Gyr with an initial Li abundance compatible with BBN. Without AddMix the abundance of lithium would decrease when the temperature of the star increases. This is depicted by the dashed green line in the left panel of Fig. 1 and is in contradiction with the existence of a lithium plateau. But with a model including ad-hoc AddMix, where the AddMix diffusion coefficient is given by DT and is connected to DHe(AD) at a reference temperature of log T0=6.25, it is possible to reproduce the plateau as seen in the figure (solid green line). AD with AddMix has so far been shown to be at work in two globular clusters (GC) with different metallicities. Korn et al. (2007) showed the effects in NGC 6397 at [Fe/H] = −2.1. More recently Gruyters et al. (2013) have shown smaller effects, but similar in nature, in NGC 6752 at [Fe/H] = −1.6. The Li abundance for both clusters can be brought in to agreement with predictions from the cosmic microwave background radiation and Big Bang nucleosynthesis (CMB+BBN) by using stellar structure models including AD and AddMix, although with different efficiencies of AddMix. It seems there is an evolution of AddMix with metallicity which renders AD less efficient. As AddMix acts only in the outer regions, helium settling in the core is not affected, and so the overall evolution (e.g. Teff-age relation) will be similar regardless of this parameter.

scholarly journals Cosmic Strings and Galaxy Formation

1988 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 281-288
Author(s):  
Neil Turok
Keyword(s):  
Early Universe ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Particle Physics ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
High Symmetry ◽  
Particle Spectrum ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Hubble Expansion ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation

The hot big bang theory of the early universe is rather well established. Among its successful predictions are the Hubble expansion, the microwave background radiation and the abundances of the light elements. It also fits in rather nicely with ideas from particle physics. According to these ideas (which are firmly based on experiment) at high energies particle interactions become more symmetrical and the apparently complicated particle spectrum today becomes very simple. It is an appealing notion that such a state of high symmetry was actually realised in the very early universe at very high temperatures, and the symmetry was broken as the universe expanded and cooled.

Measurement of the microwave background radiation

1986 ◽  
Vol 320 (1556) ◽  
pp. 595-607 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Spectral Distortion ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Spatial Fluctuations ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Flux Measurements

Absolute flux measurements of the 2.7 K background radiation show a blackbody spectrum with good accuracy ( ca . + 5 %) over two orders of magnitude of wavelength (12 cm to 1 mm). This is in agreement with the thermal history of matter and radiation envisaged by the hot Big Bang model. In particular, experimental limits on spectral distortion constrain processes that release energy into the early Universe. The extreme isotropy of the 2.7 K radiation on small angular scales (10" to 1°) sets interesting limits on models for the formation of mass structure. Some types of perturbations can be ruled out because the accompanying spatial fluctuations in radiation temperature are not seen (Δ T / T < 10 -4 ). Large-scale (1-90°) anisotropy of the radiation is plausible because at the time of decoupling (z « 1000), regions separated by more than a few degrees in the sky were not in causal contact. Explanation of the observed isotropy is a major feature of inflationary models. Finally, the observed dipole anisotropy is mostly due to the peculiar velocity of the Galaxy with respect to the radiation frame. An interesting question is: how much of this velocity is primordial and how much can be accounted for by local mass attractors?

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