Related papers: Molecules in the early Universe
We clarify that chemical and kinetic equilibration in the early Universe are distinct: neither implies the other, and the ordering of their decouplings need not be universal. We illustrate this with Standard-Model neutrino decoupling,…
The first luminous objects in the concordance cosmology form by molecular hydrogen cooling in dark matter dominated halos of masses ~10^6 M_sun. We use Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement simulations to demonstrate that in the presence of a…
Of the light nuclides observed in the universe today, D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li are relics from its early evolution. The primordial abundances of these relics, produced via Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) during the first half hour of the…
Hydrogen recombination in the early Universe in the presence of a magnetic field is studied. An equation for the temperature of recombination in the presence of a magnetic field is derived. Limiting cases of weak and strong fields are…
We present the first fast and detailed computation of the cosmological recombination radiation released during the hydrogen (redshift z ~ 1300) and helium (z ~ 2500 and z ~ 6000) recombination epochs, introducing the code CosmoSpec. Our…
Many questions in physical cosmology regarding the thermal history of the intergalactic medium, chemical enrichment, reionization, etc. are thought to be intimately related to the nature and evolution of pregalactic structure. In particular…
The age of the Universe at a given redshift is a fundamental relationship in cosmology. For many years, the uncertainties in it were dauntingly large, close to a factor of 2. In this age of precision cosmology, they are now at the percent…
In this thesis we focus on studying the physics of cosmological recombination and how the details of recombination affect the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. We present a detailed calculation of the spectral line distortions…
Equilibrium properties of hydrogen-helium mixtures under conditions similar to the interior of giant gas planets are studied by means of first principle density functional molecular dynamics simulations. We investigate the molecular and…
Star-forming galaxies in the early universe provide us with perhaps the most natural way of explaining the reionization of the universe. Current observational results are sufficiently comprehensive, as to allow us to approximately calculate…
Primordial nucleosynthesis is rightly hailed as one of the great successes of the standard cosmological model. Here we consider the initial forging of elements in the recently proposed Rh = ct universe, a cosmology that demands linear…
For a brief time in its early evolution the Universe was a cosmic nuclear reactor. The expansion and cooling of the Universe limited this epoch to the first few minutes, allowing time for the synthesis in astrophysically interesting…
The formation of the first galaxies during cosmic dawn and reionization (at redshifts $z=5-30$), triggered the last major phase transition of our universe, as hydrogen evolved from cold and neutral to hot and ionized. The 21-cm line of…
The history of the transition from a neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) to one that is almost fully ionized can reveal the character of cosmological ionizing sources. We study the evolution of the volume filling factor of HII and HeIII…
The contribution of stars in galaxies to cosmic reionisation depends on the star formation history in the Universe, the abundance of galaxies during reionisation, the escape fraction of ionising photons and the clumping factor of the…
We describe a phenomenological model for molecular hydrogen formation suited for applications in galaxy formation simulations, which includes on-equilibrium formation of molecular hydrogen on dust and approximate treatment of both its…
We describe how the high-redshift 21-cm background can be used to improve both our understanding of the fundamental cosmological parameters of our Universe and exotic processes originating in the dark sector. The 21-cm background emerging…
Of the light elements, the primordial abundance of deuterium, (D/H)_p, provides the most sensitive diagnostic for the cosmological mass density parameter Omega_B. Recent high redshift (D/H) measurements are highly discrepant, although this…
We present results for the spectral distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) arising due to bound-bound transitions during the epoch of cosmological hydrogen recombination at frequencies down to nu~100MHz. We extend our previous…
The formation of the first stars and quasars marks the transition between the smooth initial state and the clumpy current state of the Universe. In popular CDM cosmologies, the first sources of light started to form at a redshift z=30 and…