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The Horizon Problem |
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The cosmic background in all directions has the
same temperature, yet opposite sides of the sky are not in “causal contact”
(they are outside each other’s horizons). The largest COBE structures are
also larger than their own horizons! |
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The Flatness Problem |
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The geometry of the Universe now appears to be
flat. But it has expanded by a factor of 1060, so at the
beginning it had to be flat to within a factor of 10-60! And yet
it had to have enough density fluctuations to produce today’s structure.
How was that arranged? |
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The Matter Problem |
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Matter and antimatter should be created in
exactly equal amounts, but they weren’t (by a tiny bit). |
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The Creation Problem |
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How did spacetime suddenly spring into being,
with lots of mass and energy, and violently expand? |
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The Horizon Problem |
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Everything in the observable Universe (and well
beyond) was within the horizon before inflation. |
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The Flatness Problem |
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Inflation was so extreme that all initial
conditions are erased, and Omega must now be exactly 1. |
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The Matter Problem |
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Grand Unified theories show how excess matter
can be produced (and symmetry violations have been observed in particle
accelerators). |
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The Creation Problem |
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A quantum fluctuation in the “false vacuum” led
to a phase change, and imposed quantum fluctuations in spacetime which led
to the observed structure |
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Notes