2003/09/30 by Po Kin Leung, Chi-Wang Chan, C. W. Chan +2 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07524.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.349:632,2004 · 11 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; as advised by referee, omit high-baryon model
arxiv created 2003/12/10 · openalex publication_date 2004/03/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The atomic recombination process leads to a softening of the matter equation of state as reflected by a reduced generalized adiabatic index, with accompanying heat release. We study the effects of this recombination softening and reheating of the cosmic plasma on the ionization history, visibility function, cold dark matter (CDM) transfer function and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectra. The resulting modification of the CMB spectrum is 1/10 of WMAP's current error and is comparable to Planck's error. Therefore, this effect should be considered when data with higher accuracy are analysed.