2005/04/25 by David H. Oaknin, Oaknin, David H.
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Scientific Research and Discoveries #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.gr-qc/0504124
arxiv created 2005/04/25 · openalex publication_date 2005/04/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The pattern of acoustic peaks in the sub-horizon power spectrum of primordial density anisotropies at recombination can be naturally understood in the framework of standard Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology (without inflation) as a consequence of the boundary conditions imposed by the causal horizon on the statistical two-points correlation functions: the sub-horizon spectrum is discrete (harmonic), with comoving modes located at kn = n \fracπH-1eq, n = 1,2,..., because the causally connected patch of the universe at recombination is compact, with comoving radius H-1eq. The results presented in this paper complement those presented in [1], where it was shown that the scale invariance of the primordial density anisotropies over comoving scales of cosmological size is also a consequence of the boundary conditions imposed by causality. Together these results lay an appealing theoretical alternative to the inflationary paradigm as the ultimate answer for the origin of cosmological structures in standard cosmology.