2007/08/02 by Pedro G. Ferreira, Pedro Ferreira, João Magueijo +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.78.061301
published as Phys.Rev.D78:061301,2008
arxiv created 2007/08/02 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is an interesting possibility that the Universe underwent a period of thermal equilibrium at very early times. One expects a residue of this primordial state to be imprinted on the large scale structure of space time. In this paper, we study the morphology of this thermal residue in a universe whose early dynamics is governed by a scalar field. We calculate the amplitude of fluctuations on large scales and compare it with the imprint of vacuum fluctuations. We then use the observed power spectrum of fluctuations on the cosmic microwave background to place a constraint on the temperature of the Universe before and during inflation. We also present an alternative scenario, where the fluctuations are predominantly thermal and near scale-invariant.