SCI 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Virtual Particle, Local Group
Document Summary
Pairs of virtual particles pop into existence from the vacuum and quickly annihilate each other. Virtual particles are permitted to exist by the laws of quantum mechanics: proven to exist by the casimir experiment. Inflation -> pre big bang there was an infinite energy field. Our universe simply popped into existence as some of this energy spontaneously converted to matter: e = mc2 -> m = e/c2. Our brand-new, still small universe achieved thermal equilibrium. Next a fraction of a second after the big bang, the universe expanded dramatically by a factor of ~ 1030. Same temperature regions became widely-separated: explains the universal cmb = 2. 728k ~ 3k. Other big bangs arise from infinite vacuum to produce other universes. Recall cobe satellite which confirmed: the cmb ~ 3k (2. 728k) Cobe was later asked to seek very small temperature variations in the cmb: found tiny temperature deviations of +/- 0. 0003k.