Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
History of the Big Bang theory
Timeline of cosmological theories
Category
Astronomy portal
v
t
e
In physical cosmology, the electroweak epoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when the temperature of the universe had fallen enough that the strong force separated from the electronuclear interaction, but was high enough for electromagnetism and the weak interaction to remain merged into a single electroweak interaction above the critical temperature for electroweak symmetry breaking (159.5±1.5 GeV[1]
in the Standard Model of particle physics). Some cosmologists place the electroweak epoch at the start of the inflationary epoch, approximately 10−36 seconds after the Big Bang.[2][3][4] Others place it at approximately 10−32 seconds after the Big Bang when the potential energy of the inflaton field that had driven the inflation of the universe during the inflationary epoch was released, filling the universe with a dense, hot quark–gluon plasma.[5] Particle interactions in this phase were energetic enough to create large numbers of exotic particles, including W and Z bosons and Higgs bosons. As the universe expanded and cooled, interactions became less energetic and when the universe was about 10−12 seconds old, W and Z bosons ceased to be created at observable rates.[citation needed] The remaining W and Z bosons decayed quickly, and the weak interaction became a short-range force in the following quark epoch.
The electroweak epoch ended with an electroweak phase transition, the nature of which is unknown. If first order, this could source a gravitational wave background.[6][7] The electroweak phase transition is also a potential source of baryogenesis,[8][9] provided the Sakharov conditions are satisfied.[10]
In the minimal Standard Model, the transition during the electroweak epoch was not a first- or a second-order phase transition but a continuous crossover, preventing any baryogenesis,[11][12]
or the production of an observable gravitational wave background.[6][7]
However many extensions to the Standard Model including supersymmetry and the two-Higgs-doublet model have a first-order electroweak phase transition (but require additional CP violation).[citation needed]
^D'Onofrio, Michela; Rummukainen, Kari (2016). "Standard model cross-over on the lattice". Phys. Rev. D. 93 (2): 025003. arXiv:1508.07161. Bibcode:2016PhRvD..93b5003D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.025003. hdl:10138/159845. S2CID 119261776.
^Ryden, B. (2003). Introduction to Cosmology. Addison-Wesley. p. 196. ISBN 0-8053-8912-1.
^Allday, Jonathan (2002). Quarks, Leptons and the Big Bang. Taylor & Francis. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-7503-0806-9.
^Our Universe Part 6: Electroweak Epoch, Scientific Explorer
^Lecture 13: History of the Very Early Universe Archived 2012-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, Dr. Balša Terzić, Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development
^ abCaprini, Chiara; et al. (2020). "Detecting gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions with LISA: an update". Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2020 (3): 024. arXiv:1910.13125. Bibcode:2020JCAP...03..024C. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2020/03/024. S2CID 204950387.
^ abGhiglieri, J.; Jackson, G.; Laine, M.; Zhu, Y. (2020). "Gravitational wave background from Standard Model physics: Complete leading order". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2020 (7): 092. arXiv:2004.11392. Bibcode:2020JHEP...07..092G. doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2020)092. S2CID 216144470.
^L. D. McLerran; M. E. Shaposhnikov; N. Turok; M. B. Voloshin (1991). "Why the baryon asymmetry of the universe is approximately 10**-10". Phys. Lett. B. 256: 451–456. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(91)91794-V.
^Morrissey, David E.; Ramsey-Musolf, Michael J. (2012). "Electroweak baryogenesis". New J. Phys. 14 (12): 12500. arXiv:1206.2942. Bibcode:2012NJPh...14l5003M. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/12/125003. S2CID 119230032.
^A. D. Sakharov (1967). "Violation of CP invariance, C asymmetry, and baryon asymmetry of the universe". Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters. 5: 24–27. Archived from the original on 2019-05-16. Retrieved 2020-07-14. and in Russian, A. D. Sakharov (1967). "Violation of CP invariance, C asymmetry, and baryon asymmetry of the universe". ZhETF Pis'ma. 5: 32–35. Archived from the original on 2019-06-06. Retrieved 2020-07-14. republished as A. D. Sakharov (1991). "Violation of CP invariance, C asymmetry, and baryon asymmetry of the universe". Soviet Physics Uspekhi (in Russian and English). 34 (5): 392–393. Bibcode:1991SvPhU..34..392S. doi:10.1070/PU1991v034n05ABEH002497.
^Bergerhoff, Bastian; Wetterich, Christof (1998). "Electroweak Phase Transition in the Early Universe?". Current Topics in Astrofundamental Physics: Primordial Cosmology. Springer Netherlands. pp. 211–240. arXiv:hep-ph/9611462. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-5046-0_6. ISBN 978-94-010-6119-3. S2CID 13949582.
^Kajantie, Keijo; et al. (1996). "The Electroweak Phase Transition: A Non-Perturbative Analysis". Nucl. Phys. B. 466 (1–2): 189–258. arXiv:hep-lat/9510020. Bibcode:1996NuPhB.466..189K. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(96)00052-1. S2CID 119416033.
In physical cosmology, the electroweakepoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when the temperature of the universe had fallen enough...
as including the inflationary epoch. In other models, the electroweakepoch is said to begin after the inflationary epoch ended, at roughly 10−32 seconds...
seconds: Electroweakepoch begins: The Universe cools down to 1028 kelvin. As a result, the strong nuclear force becomes distinct from the electroweak force...
hadrons. The quark epoch began approximately 10−12 seconds after the Big Bang, when the preceding electroweakepoch ended as the electroweak interaction separated...
above this scale during the electroweakepoch. In the unextended Standard Model, the transition from the electroweakepoch was not a first or a second...
weak force merge into a combined electroweak force. During the quark epoch (shortly after the Big Bang), the electroweak force split into the electromagnetic...
anti-quarks and gluons as it entered the electroweakepoch. One approach to confirming the inflationary epoch is to directly measure its effect on the...
large-scale structure of the universe. At a time around 10−36 seconds, the electroweakepoch begins when the strong nuclear force separates from the other forces...
phase diagram. The electroweak phase transition marks the moment when the Higgs mechanism first activated, ending the electroweakepoch. Just as for the...
during the electroweakepoch of the universe, the electroweak force separated from the strong force. Accordingly, a grand unification epoch is hypothesized...
the electroweak vacuum state is likely to be stable, merely long-lived or completely unstable for given combination of masses. The "electroweak vacuum...
Planck epoch 10−40 to 10−35 10−35 to 10−30 Grand unification epoch 10−30 to 10−25 10−25 to 10−20 10−20 to 10−15 10−15 to 10−10 Electroweakepoch 10−10...
luminescence). The electroweak force is believed to have separated into the electromagnetic and weak forces during the quark epoch of the early universe...
otherwise empty space), which breaks the weak isospin symmetry of the electroweak interaction and, via the Higgs mechanism, gives a rest mass to all massive...
particles. Two main theories are electroweak baryogenesis (Standard Model), which would occur during the electroweak phase transition, and the GUT baryogenesis...
unify into a single combined electroweak interaction. GUT models predict that at even higher energy, the strong and electroweak interactions will unify into...
Fermi's theory cried out, and the new physics turned out to be the electroweak theory. Einstein's theory is now crying out. Penrose, Roger (2005). The...
McGraw–Hill. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-07-154382-8. S. G. Roth (2007). Precision Electroweak Physics at Electron–Positron Colliders. Springer. p. VI. ISBN 978-3-540-35164-1...
than a red dwarf. Right ascension and declination coordinates are for the epoch J2000. The distance measurements are based on the Hipparcos Catalogue and...
effective temperature SEIS: radius obtained from seismic data At the J2000 epoch Using an angular diameter of 7.8±0.64 milliarcseconds and a distance of...
leptogenesis are thought to occur, as the quark–gluon plasma cools, electroweak symmetry breaking occurs and the universe becomes principally composed...
CERN-LHC (2010). Higgs boson and electroweak symmetry breaking (1963–2012): The mechanism responsible for breaking the electroweak gauge symmetry, giving mass...
components for proper motion in the equatorial coordinate system (of a given epoch, often J2000.0) are given in the direction of right ascension (μα) and of...
would have been significantly different prior to electroweak symmetry breaking during the quark epoch. The vacuum energy in quantum field theory can be...
contrast to the number of active neutrino types required to ensure the electroweak interaction is free of anomalies, which must be exactly 3: the number...
Global Information
