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Knowledge Limits in Cosmology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Menas Kafatos
Menas Kafatos*
Affiliation:
Earth Observing and Space Research Program, Institute for Computational Sciences and Informatics and Department of Physics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030

Abstract

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In cosmology one faces the observational challenge that knowledge about distant regions of the universe is dependent on assumptions one makes about these regions which are themselves coupled to the observations. Within the framework of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker big bang models the universe becomes opaque to its own radiation at z ≈ 1,000 and the earlier, and more distant, regions of the universe are not directly accessible through observations. Other challenges exist such as possible merging of extended distant sources and confusion of spectra from distant galaxies. One, therefore, encounters horizons in our understanding of the universe. Such horizons exist in any mode of description. To use the quantum analogy, the observer is always part of the system under study, the universe, and a description of the universe entails including the observer and observing apparatus. Since the early universe should be described in quantum terms, it follows that non-locality in the universe is not an a-priori requirement but the outcome of the observing process itself. As such, the flatness and horizon problems may not be preconditions on theoretical models.

Type
Part I: Invited Reviews
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 168: Examining the Big Bang and the Diffuse Background Radiations , 1996 , pp. 431 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996 

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