Model of the formation of the universe is threatened?

Very small changes in the temperature detected in the cosmic microwave background radiation map are often thought of as evidence to show that stars, galaxies and other large structures are formed from dense material in the early universe. However, a US physicist firmly asserts that these observed changes are in fact due to the hydrogen atoms in our galaxy . If these results are correct, astronomers will be forced to seriously rethink the models of the evolution of the universe.

In the hot plasma plumes of the early universe, the light emitted by the Big Bang could not travel far without scattering on electrons. But after a period of about 380,000 years, the universe began to drop the temperature to a level that was cold enough to allow electrons and protons to join together to form hydrogen atoms.

Will the model of the evolution of the universe change from Gerrit Verschuur's analysis?(Photo: VatlyVietnam)

At that time, photons could travel freely to a longer distance without scattering, the elasticity in its wavelength as the universe expanded to become cosmic microwave radiation (Cosmic Microwave Background - CMB) - this is a structural map of the universe that has cooled over time.

The data recorded by COBE satellite in 1993 and to a greater extent by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) in 2003 showed that very small variations of temperature spread throughout CMB. This proves that the early universe does not have a regular mass distribution but there are dense regions that, as assumed in astronomers' models, are the ones that grow into galaxies and Other structures that we still see today.

Gerrit Verschuur, Memphis University physicist (USA) does not agree with these points. He notes that very small changes in temperature recorded by WMAP tend to overlap with radio waves emitted from hydrogen atoms neutralizing from the center of the Milky Way. On the other hand, fluctuations may not necessarily be part of the cosmic background radiation (see the article of the Verschuurs about to publish on the Astronomical Journal) . Verschuur discovered this when conducting research on Leiden-Argentina-Bonn observations (LAB), a map of radio radiation from neutral hydrogen atoms in the Milky Way galaxy that was completed in 2005. " There are a lot of abnormal data and LAB participants tend to only extract the data in a small area of ​​their interest " - Verschuur told Physicsworld.com. "I have worked with metrics on a very large scale." And in the article, Verschuurs noted the six regions in which he found visible correlations between observations recorded by LAB and WMAP but he said that he found them around 200 regions. there is more correlation.

If Verschuur's analysis is accurate, it could undermine the widely popular model of "Cold dark matter" of the evolution of the universe, the large structures growing. from low density states of the original universe. According to studies from WMAP observations, normal matter accounts for only 4% of the universe, while dark matter and dark energy account for 24% and 72%, respectively.

The map of radioactive radiation from hydrogen atoms from the Milky Way (pictured above) was confirmed by Gerrit Verschuur regarding the map of the cosmic microwave background radiation recorded by WMAP (pictured below).

Although the scientists working at WMAP had to carefully eliminate contributions from physical processes in the Milky Way with great care, Verschuurs showed that the emission of correlated hydrogen atoms could derived from an unrecognizable process.

However, not all physicists agree with this physicist's inference. Kate Land (University of Oxford, UK) and Anže Slosar (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) compared different maps from LAB and WMAP in different frequency bands and different scales using Monte Carlo technique, but still not found a significant statistical correlation (see published article in Phys. Rev. D 76 087301 ).

Still, Verschuur was still enthusiastic to continue his analysis."What I have achieved now is to determine what I can learn about interstellar environmental physics in studying cases like this, and not to worry about the criticism. statistical properties " - he said.

But Gary Hinshaw, a team physicist working on WMAP at NASA's Goddard Space Center, raised doubts about the conclusions of the Verschuurs: "My impression is that this is based on the "The visual comparison is preliminary on the map and not based on rigorous statistical analysis, so this result is no different from funny stories" - he told Physicsworld.com, and like Research results of Land and Slosar group : "I think this article has concluded so clearly" - he added.

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