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The Microwave Background Radiation: An Alternative View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Jayant V. Narlikar
Jayant V. Narlikar*
Affiliation:
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and AstrophysicsP.O. Bag 4 Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007India

Extract

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Why do we need to think about any alternatives when the primordial interpretation of the microwave background radiation (MBR) has been accepted by so many for so long? The answer is that the primordial interpretation, in spite of its successes has manifest shortcomings in spite of attempts to remove them by so many for so long. To mention a few:

  1. a) Why is the MBR temperature 2.7 K? The value is taken as a parameter in all early universe calculations; it is not predicted by the hot big bang theory with or without inflation.

  2. b) There are other astrophysical processes of comparable energy density and other radiation backgrounds that have no primordial origin; why should MBR alone stand out as the odd one out just at this epoch?

  3. c) Why are there no signatures of structure formation on the MBR; why is it so smooth?

  4. d) The hot big bang model relates to the universe in the first three minutes while the MBR is observed in the more recent past; are we not making too long a jump across from the one to the other?

Type
Joint Discussions
Information
Highlights of Astronomy , Volume 9: Highlights of Astronomy. As presented at the XXIst General Assembly of the IAU, 1991 , 1992 , pp. 287 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992

References

[1] Hoyle, F., Wickramasinghe, N. C. and Reddish, V. C. 1968, Nature, 218, 1124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Narlikar, J. V., Edmunds, M. G. and Wickramasinghe, N. C. 1976, in Far Infrared Astronomy, Rowan-Robinson, M., ed. (New York: Pergamon), p. 131.Google Scholar
[3] Rana, N. C. 1983, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bombay.Google Scholar
[4] Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N. C. 1988, Astrophysics and Space Sciences, 147, 245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Arp, H. C., Burbidge, G., Hoyle, F., Narlikar, J. V. and Wickramasinghe, N. C. 1990, Nature, 346, 807.Google Scholar