Evidence for a Cosmological Phase Transition on the TeVScale Page: 2 of 35
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1 Introduction
There is general (although not universal) agreement among physical cosmologists
that the current expansion phase in the evolution of our universe can be extrapolated
back toward an initial state of compression so extreme that we can neither have direct
laboratory nor indirect (astronomical) observational evidence for the laws of physics
needed to continue that extrapolation. However, much can be ascertained about the
physics that is transmitted through the expansion by the evidence available to modern
astrophysical measurements. For an excellent review of the status of observational
cosmology, see reference [1].
Here, it is assumed that the experimental evidence for currently accepted theo-
ries of particle physics is relevant in the TeV range. It is further assumed that the
current understanding of general relativity as a gravitational theory is adequate over
the same range, and consequently that the cosmological Friedman-Lemaitre (FL) dy-
namical equations are reliable guides once the observational regime has been reached
where the homogeneity and isotropy assumptions on which those equations are based
become consistent with astronomical data to requisite accuracy. The elementary par-
ticle theories usually employed in relativistic quantum field theories have well defined
transformation properties in the flat Minkowski space of special relativity; their funda-
mental principles are assumed to apply on coordinate backgrounds with cosmological
curvature. There is direct experimental evidence that quantum mechanics does ap-
ply in the background space provided by the Schwarzschild metric of the Earth from
experiments by Overhauser and collaborators[2, 3]. These experiments show that
coherent self-interference of single neutrons changes as expected when the plane of
the two interfering paths is rotated from being parallel to being perpendicular to the
"gravitational field" of the Earth. These were the first measurements requiring both
Newton's constant and Planck's constant. They provide a verification of the principle
of equivalence for quantum systems.
It is therefore expected that during some period in the past, quantum coherence
of gravitating systems should have qualitatively altered the thermodynamics of the
cosmology. Often, the onset of the importance of quantum effects in gravitation is2
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Lindesay, James V. & Noyes, H. Pierre. Evidence for a Cosmological Phase Transition on the TeVScale, report, August 23, 2005; [Menlo Park, California]. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc873586/m1/2/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.