Photons of the early universe ?

[1123581321]

Hi, i was wondering if the photons of today are the same as those of the easy universe. In terms of the understood gravitational wave which occurred during inflation through space-time. Could/did this wave change the spin of the photons, while not changing there bosonic form, but changing their intrinsic properties by jolting them 'so to speak' in such a way that their property of spin changed. similarly like a planet being hit by a meteorite etc and having its centre of gravity changed while still being a planet... ?

 

Thanks.

[imatfaal]

The photons of the CMBR are, I believe, those that were emitted c. 379 kyrs after the big bang. Whether the spin would be altered is beyond me. I do think we can see the remnants of some of the early repercussions in Acoustic Baryonic Oscillations - but that is a very large scale phenomenon rather than a very small scale

[1123581321]

Ok. Thanks anyway..

I've actually only recently come across the BAOs and they seem logical.

But, i forgot about considering the time factors..

You don't happen to know about when the inflationary period was supposed to have happened do you ?, that is in relation to photon presence...

[MigL]

The creation of 'present day' photons from pair annihilation occurred after the inflationary period. Just about all these photons are still around today.

[1123581321]

ok. i guess that answers my question. thanks. but could a gravity wave change a particles spin ?, while it stays the form.

[Airbrush]

You don't happen to know about when the inflationary period was supposed to have happened do you ?

 

Your opening question was way beyond me, then you asked an easy question. If you look for "cosmic inflation" on wikipedia.com, the first paragraph tells you when it happened.

 

"In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation or just inflation is the theorized extremely rapid exponential expansion of the early universe by a factor of at least 1078 in volume, driven by a negative-pressure vacuum energy density.[1] The inflationary epoch comprises the first part of the electroweak epoch following the grand unification epoch. It lasted from 10^−36 seconds after the Big Bang to sometime between 10^−33 and 10^−32 seconds. Following the inflationary period, the universe continued to expand, but at a slower rate."

 

 

Funny though how then can split hairs over when it ended. They seem to know so precisely about it that they know it was between 10^-33 and 10^-32 seconds after the moment of bang. How is that possible?

Edited May 3, 2012 by Airbrush

[MigL]

The timelines are very specific because they occurr at the times of symmetry breaking of the early universe when the original force of GUT and electroweak split into today's strong weak and EM forces. These two symmetry breaking events take place at very specific energies and so the time can be derived.