1996/04/30 by Neil Turok · 49 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Adiabatic process #Anisotropy #Astrophysics #Causality (physics) #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Doppler effect #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Inflation (cosmology) #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Spectral density #Statistical physics #Statistics #Theoretical physics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.54.r3686
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 54(6), R3686-R3689 (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, RevTex file and three figures, This version is to appear in Phys Rev D, Rapid Communications. It includes minor typo corrections and slight changes of emphasis compared to the original, as well as an added reference to a new paper astro-ph/9607109 which includes the full Sachs Wolfe integral
arxiv created 1996/07/26 · openalex publication_date 1996/09/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A considerable experimental effort is underway to detect the "Doppler peaks" in the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave anisotropy. These peaks offer unique information about structure formation in the universe. One key issue is whether structure could have formed by the action of causal physics within the standard hot big bang, or whether a prior period of inflation was required. Recently there has been some discussion of whether causal sources could reproduce the pattern of Doppler peaks produced by the standard adiabatic theory. This paper gives a rigorous definition of causality, and a causal decomposition of a general source. I present an example of a very simple causal source that mimics the standard adiabatic theory, accurately reproducing the behavior of the local intrinsic temperature perturbations.