CH2115 – The Origins of the Cosmos

The Origins of the Universe

-Where does the Universe come from?
-Where is the Universe going?

There are 2 main theories regarding these two questions.

a)Steady State Theory

-devised by Gold, Hoyle and Bond
-‘The Universe expands and matter is created to fill the void’
⟹the Universe has no beginning and no end, a steady state Universe obeys the perfect
cosmological principle, the Universe is homogenous and isotropic in both space and time

b)The Big Bang Theory

-devised initially by George Gamon
-nothing existed at first, the Universe began from a single point, expanding and cooling over time
⟹the Universe obeys the cosmological principle, the Universe is homogenous and isotropic in
space but not in time.

Evidence of the Big Bang

To prove the Big Bang there must be evidence of;
-expansion
-heat
-the Universe being isotropic

The Evidence for Expansion

Before it is possible to find the evidence for expansion there are two problems that must first be
overcome.
a) How do we measure the velocity of a distant object?
b) How do we measure the distance of a distant object?

Measuring A Distant Objects Speed

For a) it is necessary to find a method for measuring the radical velocity (the speed of an object
moving directly towards or away from the observer). This is done by applying the Doppler effect
relative to the observers position.

blue red blue red

blue shift red shift

velocity

Perception shows the wave fronts Perception shows the wave fronts
‘bunching’ as the object emits light, ‘separating’ as the object emits light, moves
moves forwards then emits more light further away, then emits more light
Blue shift is never cosmologically observed other than on a local scale. This means that all distant
cosmological bodies are red-shifted as they are moving away from us, this can be further expanded
since the distance of an object and its red shift are proportional.
⟹The Universe is expanding on a large scale

To calculate red shift (z);

λobs − λrest
z=
λrest

where a positive result indicated red shift.

For fast-moving objects;

Vr
1− C where V is the radial velocity
z= r
Vr
1+ C

Rearranged this gives;

2
Vr z+1 −1
= 2
c z−1 −1

Giving the ratio of an of an objects speed in comparison to the speed of light, again the more distant
the object the higher the speed.
When Vr ≪ C, z=Vr /c

Measuring Large Distance

The stellar brightness of an object depends on its luminosity (the amount of energy emitted) and its
distance
-brightness is defined on the magnitude scale
-apparent magnitude (m) – how bright an object appears
-absolute magnitude (M) – the measure of how bright an object is at a standard distance of
10 parsecs (1 parsec (pc)=3.26 light years, parsec coming from the term ‘parallax second’)

For example the sun, msun= -26.86

Msun= 4.74
The larger the absolute magnitude the dimmer the star.
Telescopes can see to a magnitude of around 29/30.

5 orders of magnitude is a factor of 100 in brightness, i.e. a first magnitude star is 100 1/5 (2.515)
times brighter than second magnitude star.

Cepheid variables are giant yellow stars with Mcepheid≈6, they change in brightness with a well
defined period (P).
⟹Period luminosity law; M∝P
In good conditions Cepheid variables, as part of the large magellanic cloud, can be seen in the
southern hemisphere.
For these Cepheid variables H(infrared luminosity)= -3logPday+16
 The nearest Cepheid is polaris (the North/Pole star), around 200 parsecs away, and it is from this
that the standard ‘candle’ is defined as both the distance and brightness are known.

To determine the distance of other stellar objects nearby Cepheid variables are found and used as a
reference.

The Discovery of Galaxies and Hubble’s Law

Slipher was the first to discover that nebuli (seen as ‘fuzzy objects’) were always red-shifted. In 1921
Hubble discovered Cepheid variables in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and measured the width as
being around 2.2 million light years across, compared to around 100,000 light years for the Milky
Way, suggesting that Andromeda was indeed another galaxy.
In 1929 Hubble then measured the Cepheid distances and red shift values for a large number of
galaxies;

Vr Vr is the recessional velocity, Vr=HOD

where
HO=Hubble’s Constant=71km s-1/MPc

HO changes over very long periods of

time.

Distance
Friedman Density
Pobs
Ω= where P = rho = the density of the Universe
Prest

-The open universe would lead to

heat death, the contents of the
Mean
Ω<1 Open Universe → Heat Death Universe becoming waste
Distance
radiation in the form of heat
Between
Galaxies -The big crunch could allow the
Ω>1 Universe to begin again (as
everything retreats into the
original singularity),
philosophically this could explain
Big Crunch
the existence of humanity as in
an infinitely cyclic Universe it
Big Bang Time
would become inevitably.
Olber’s Paradox
Olber’s paradox is in relation to the fact that the darkness of the night sky conflicts with the
supposition of an infinite and eternal static Universe by questioning thus;
‘Surely an infinite Universe would contain stars in every line of sight?’

Edgar Allan Poe constructed the first answer to this, that light as a finite speed and the Universe is
too young for light to have travelled from every star.
The Big Bang would lead to a finite Universe in which many stars are young compared to the
Universe, also resolving the paradox.

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)

If the Big Bang is to hold true there should be heat remaining in the Universe as a remnant of such
an event, it is believed that the temperature shortly after the Big Bang is to have been 10 32 oC, the
Cosmological Principle means that upon expansion the mean temperature should be the same
throughout the Universe.

In 1965, Penzius and Wilson (antennae manufacturers who found that their products always
received static, no matter what they attempted to do to alleviate this problem) discovered a
universal black body radiaton at 160GHz (in the microwave region).
This gives an isotropic mean temperature of 2.725K.

This 2.2725K CMBR is the remnant heat from the Big Bang.

This, in essence, ends the steady state/Big Bang debate since the steady state model of the Universe
has no explanation for this background radiation.

The Cosmic Microwave Background Explore (CMBE) and Wilkinsons Microwave Anisotropy Prove
(WMAP) both seek CMBR above the atmosphere.

Distribution of Elements
If the definition of the Big Bang is correct it must be possible to predict the original elemental
composition of the Universe.

Two phases existed after the Big Bang;

1)The Radiation Era – upto ~60,000 years radiation composed the majority of the Universe
2)The Matter Era – matter (protons, neutrons and electrons become dominant)
(NB; it was after around 360,000 years that atoms first formed, before this point it was too hot for
them to remain stable)

Elements are made by fusion reactions, both in the Big Bang (Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, BBN) and in
stars (Stellar Nucleosynthesis, SN).

The Universe is ~25% helium, ~75% 1hydrogen, 0.01% 2hydrogen (deuteron) and ~10-10% lithium and
beryllium by mass. To verify the predicted BBN abundance of the elements distant objects that
display primordial elemental composition (i.e. very old stars, dwarf galaxies and quasars) must be
observed.

Evidence from Dwarf Galaxies

Oxygen and nitrogen can only be formed during SN, and not BBN (the Big Bang wasn’t hot enough
 for long enough to allow for the multiple collisions required for their synthesis to occur.)
4
He is formed by both SN and BBN, and so if the He/O ratio is measured spectroscopically for many
objects in H II plasma regions and the data is extrapolated back to Oxygen=0, the initial amount of
4
He at time zero is effectively shown.
This gives a result of around 24%, close to the predicted BBN value.

Evidence from Quasars (Very Distant Objects)

Distant means that these objects are very young, in the sense that the light observed from them is
billions of years old, the objects are seen as they were at creation.
2
H is rapidly processed to 3He and as SN can only ‘consume’ 2H and not create it, any observed 2H is
primordial. The ratio of observed 1H:2H is ~30,000, again close to the BBN predictions.

Evidence from Old Stars (Low Mass Stars)

These objects are very slow at burning fuel, therefore creating elements very slowly. The current
composition of old stars is therefore similar to the primordial composition. They have a lifetime of
~1012-1013 years, as the Universe is 1.3x1010 years old these objects are barely 0.1-1% into their
lifetimes, and due to the small size they are unable to synthesize larger elements.
In this case it is the level of 7Li observed.

Using Fe/Fe(sun) as a measure of a stars maturity;

7 Young (bright) stars, not primordial 7 Old stars, small distribution of 7Li values
Li/H Li/H →’plateau’ stars close to primordial
composition

Fe/Fe(sun) Fe/Fe(sun)

This shows a 1H/7Li ratio of 8x104, again close to the BBN predictions.