Physical cosmology

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Physical cosmology, as it is now understood, began with the 20th century development of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, and better astronomical observations of extremely distant objects. These advances made it possible to speculate about the origin of the Universe, and allowed the establishment of the Big Bang Theory, by Fr. Georges Lemaitre, as the leading cosmological model. Some researchers still advocate a handful of alternative cosmologies;[2] however, most cosmologists agree that the Big Bang theory best explains observations.


History of study[edit]

Modern cosmology developed along tandem tracks of theory and observation. In 1916, Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity, which provided a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time.[3] At the time, Einstein believed in a static universe, but found that his original formulation of the theory did not permit it.[4] This is because masses distributed throughout the Universe gravitationally attract, and move toward each other over time.[5] However, he realized that his equations permitted the introduction of a constant term which could counteract the attractive force of gravity on the cosmic scale. Einstein published his first paper on relativistic cosmology in 1917, in which he added this cosmological constant to his field equations in order to force them to model a static universe.[6] However, this so-called Einstein model is unstable to small perturbations—it will eventually start to expand or contract.[4] The Einstein model describes a static universe; space is finite and unbounded (analogous to the surface of a sphere, which has a finite area but no edges). It was later realized that Einstein's model was just one of a larger set of possibilities, all of which were consistent with general relativity and the cosmological principle. The cosmological solutions of general relativity were found by Alexander Friedmann in the early 1920s.[7] His equations describe the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker universe, which may expand or contract, and whose geometry may be open, flat, or closed.


Given the cosmological principle, Hubble's law suggested that the Universe was expanding. Two primary explanations were proposed for the expansion. One was Lemaître's Big Bang theory, advocated and developed by George Gamow. The other explanation was Fred Hoyle's steady state model in which new matter is created as the galaxies move away from each other. In this model, the Universe is roughly the same at any point in time.

For a number of years, support for these theories was evenly divided. However, the observational evidence began to support the idea that the Universe evolved from a hot dense state. The discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1965 lent strong support to the Big Bang model, and since the precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background by the Cosmic Background Explorer in the early 1990s, few cosmologists have seriously proposed other theories of the origin and evolution of the cosmos. One consequence of this is that in standard general relativity, the Universe began with a singularity, as demonstrated by Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking in the 1960s.

Energy of the cosmos[edit]

Light chemical elements, primarily hydrogen and helium, were created in the Big Bang process (see Nucleosynthesis). The small atomic nuclei combined into larger atomic nuclei to form heavier elements such as iron and nickel, which are more stable (see Nuclear fusion). This caused a later energy release. Such reactions of nuclear particles inside stars continue to contribute to sudden energy releases, such as in nova stars. Gravitational collapse of matter into black holes is also thought to power the most energetic processes, generally seen at the centers of galaxies (see Quasar and Active galaxy).

Cosmologists cannot explain all cosmic phenomena exactly, such as those related to the accelerating expansion of the Universe, using conventional forms of energy. Instead, cosmologists propose a new form of energy called dark energy that permeates all space.[8] One hypothesis is that dark energy is the energy of virtual particles, which are believed to exist in a vacuum due to the uncertainty principle.



As the Universe expands, both matter and radiation in it become diluted. However, the Universe also cools down, meaning that the average energy per particle gets smaller. Therefore radiation becomes weaker, and dilutes faster[why?] than matter. Thus with the expansion of the Universe, radiation becomes less dominant than matter. The very early Universe is said to have been 'radiation dominated' and radiation controlled the deceleration of expansion. Later, as the average energy per photon becomes roughly 10 eV and lower, matter dictates the rate of deceleration and the Universe is said to be 'matter dominated'. The intermediate case is not treated well analytically. As the expansion of the universe continues, matter dilutes even further and the cosmological constant becomes dominant, leading to an acceleration in the universe's expansion.

History of the universe[edit]

The history of the Universe is a central issue in cosmology. The history of the Universe is divided into different periods called epochs, according to the dominant forces and processes in each period. The standard cosmological model is known as the Lambda-CDM model.

Equations of motion[edit]

The equations of motion governing the Universe as a whole are derived from general relativity with a small, positive cosmological constant.[10] The solution is an expanding universe; due to this expansion, the radiation and matter in the Universe cool down and become diluted. At first, the expansion is slowed down by gravitation attracting the radiation and matter in the Universe. However, as these become diluted, the cosmological constant becomes more dominant and the expansion of the Universe starts to accelerate rather than decelerate. In our universe this happened billions of years ago.

Particle physics in cosmology[edit]

Particle physics is important to the behavior of the early Universe, because the early Universe was so hot that the average energy density was very high. Because of this, scattering processes and decay of unstable particles are important in cosmology.

As a rule of thumb, a scattering or a decay process is cosmologically important in a certain cosmological epoch if the time scale describing that process is smaller than, or comparable to, the time scale of the expansion of the Universe. The time scale that describes the expansion of the Universe is 1/H with H being the Hubble constant, which itself actually varies with time. The expansion timescale 1/H is roughly equal to the age of the Universe at that time.

Timeline of the Big Bang[edit]

Observations suggest that the Universe began around 13.8 billion years ago.[11] Since then, the evolution of the Universe has passed through three phases. The very early Universe, which is still poorly understood, was the split second in which the Universe was so hot that particles had energies higher than those currently accessible in particle accelerators on Earth. Therefore, while the basic features of this epoch have been worked out in the Big Bang theory, the details are largely based on educated guesses. Following this, in the early Universe, the evolution of the Universe proceeded according to known high energy physics. This is when the first protons, electrons and neutrons formed, then nuclei and finally atoms. With the formation of neutral hydrogen, the cosmic microwave background was emitted. Finally, the epoch of structure formation began, when matter started to aggregate into the first stars and quasars, and ultimately galaxies, clusters of galaxies and superclusters formed. The future of the Universe is not yet firmly known, but according to the ΛCDM model it will continue expanding forever.

Areas of study[edit]


Very early Universe[edit]

The early, hot Universe appears to be well explained by the Big Bang from roughly 10−33 seconds onwards. But there are several problems. One is that there is no compelling reason, using current particle physics, for the Universe to be flat, homogeneous, and isotropic (see the cosmological principle). Moreover, grand unified theories of particle physics suggest that there should be magnetic monopoles in the Universe, which have not been found. These problems are resolved by a brief period of cosmic inflation, which drives the Universe to flatness, smooths out anisotropies and inhomogeneities to the observed level, and exponentially dilutes the monopoles. The physical model behind cosmic inflation is extremely simple, but it has not yet been confirmed by particle physics, and there are difficult problems reconciling inflation and quantum field theory. Some cosmologists think that string theory and brane cosmology will provide an alternative to inflation.

Another major problem in cosmology is what caused the Universe to contain far more matter than antimatter. Cosmologists can observationally deduce that the Universe is not split into regions of matter and antimatter. If it were, there would be X-rays and gamma rays produced as a result of annihilation, but this is not observed. Therefore, some process in the early universe must have created a small excess of matter over antimatter, and this (currently not understood) process is called baryogenesis. Three required conditions for baryogenesis were derived by Andrei Sakharov in 1967, and requires a violation of the particle physics symmetry, called CP-symmetry, between matter and antimatter. However, particle accelerators measure too small a violation of CP-symmetry to account for the baryon asymmetry. Cosmologists and particle physicists look for additional violations of the CP-symmetry in the early Universe that might account for the baryon asymmetry.


Big bang nucleosynthesis[edit]

Big Bang nucleosynthesis is the theory of the formation of the elements in the early Universe. It finished when the Universe was about three minutes old and its temperature dropped below that at which nuclear fusion could occur. Big Bang nucleosynthesis had a brief period during which it could operate, so only the very lightest elements were produced. Starting from hydrogen ions (protons), it principally produced deuterium, helium-4, and lithium. Other elements were produced in only trace abundances. The basic theory of nucleosynthesis was developed in 1948 by George Gamow, Ralph Asher Alpher, and Robert Herman. It was used for many years as a probe of physics at the time of the Big Bang, as the theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis connects the abundances of primordial light elements with the features of the early Universe. Specifically, it can be used to test the equivalence principle, to probe dark matter, and test neutrino physics. Some cosmologists have proposed that Big Bang nucleosynthesis suggests there is a fourth "sterile" species of neutrino.

Cosmic microwave background[edit]



Formation and evolution of large-scale structure[edit]

Understanding the formation and evolution of the largest and earliest structures (i.e., quasars, galaxies, clusters and superclusters) is one of the largest efforts in cosmology. Cosmologists study a model of hierarchical structure formation in which structures form from the bottom up, with smaller objects forming first, while the largest objects, such as superclusters, are still assembling. One way to study structure in the Universe is to survey the visible galaxies, in order to construct a three-dimensional picture of the galaxies in the Universe and measure the matter power spectrum. This is the approach of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.

Another tool for understanding structure formation is simulations, which cosmologists use to study the gravitational aggregation of matter in the Universe, as it clusters into filaments, superclusters and voids. Most simulations contain only non-baryonic cold dark matter, which should suffice to understand the Universe on the largest scales, as there is much more dark matter in the Universe than visible, baryonic matter. More advanced simulations are starting to include baryons and study the formation of individual galaxies. Cosmologists study these simulations to see if they agree with the galaxy surveys, and to understand any discrepancy.


  • The Lyman-alpha forest, which allows cosmologists to measure the distribution of neutral atomic hydrogen gas in the early Universe, by measuring the absorption of light from distant quasars by the gas.

These will help cosmologists settle the question of when and how structure formed in the Universe.

Dark matter[edit]


Dark energy[edit]

If the Universe is flat, there must be an additional component making up 73% (in addition to the 23% dark matter and 4% baryons) of the energy density of the Universe. This is called dark energy. In order not to interfere with Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background, it must not cluster in haloes like baryons and dark matter. There is strong observational evidence for dark energy, as the total energy density of the Universe is known through constraints on the flatness of the Universe, but the amount of clustering matter is tightly measured, and is much less than this. The case for dark energy was strengthened in 1999, when measurements demonstrated that the expansion of the Universe has begun to gradually accelerate.




A better understanding of dark energy is likely to solve the problem of the ultimate fate of the Universe. In the current cosmological epoch, the accelerated expansion due to dark energy is preventing structures larger than superclusters from forming. It is not known whether the acceleration will continue indefinitely, perhaps even increasing until a big rip, or whether it will eventually reverse.

Other areas of inquiry[edit]

Cosmologists also study:

See also[edit]


  2. ^ An Open Letter to the Scientific Community as published in New Scientist, May 22, 2004
  10. ^ P. Ojeda and H. Rosu (June 2006). "Supersymmetry of FRW barotropic cosmologies". Internat. J. Theoret. Phys. (Springer) 45 (6): 1191–1196. arXiv:gr-qc/0510004. Bibcode:2006IJTP...45.1152R. doi:10.1007/s10773-006-9123-2. 

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