THE EARLY UNIVERSE!



There are two eras in the very early universe that are easy to study experimentally in labs on earth. When the universe was a minute or so old, protons and neutrons fused to form helium (and a few other very light nuclei). When the universe was 10^-6 seconds old, its density became less than the density inside protons and neutrons, so that protons and neutrons condensed out of a “quark-gluon plasma,” which can be made at two accelerators, RHIC and LHC. The most interesting era is that of inflation, and especially the end of inflation, when the inflation field decayed into bosons. These bosons then decayed into quarks and leptons... this was the origin of all matter in the universe. This process can be studied as “direct CP violation” using an accelerator called the B-factory. Inflation itself can only be studied by direct observation of GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION emitted before or during or just after inflation.






< LIGO--- Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

The Oldest Galaxy So Far Back