PHYS30392 Cosmology

Week 2 Notes

2 The Observable Universe Part 2

2.1 Consequences of the Expansion of Space
We will now discuss a number of further interesting consequences that result from space expanding. We will assume
the peculiar velocity is zero in this section (and by default from now on, unless stated otherwise).

2.1.1 Cosmological redshift and the scale factor

Redshift due to the expansion of space is known as cosmological redshift. Here, we derive how z is related to the scale
factor a. Consider a point within a ray of light travelling from a distant source, leaving at a time tem and arriving
at the observer at later time tobs . Assuming space is a vacuum, in a time interval dt, the light will travel a proper
distance a(t)dx = c dt. The total comoving distance travelled between the source and observer, i.e. the separation
between the two points today, is therefore Z tobs
dt
x1 = c . (1)
tem a(t)
A second point in the ray, exactly one wavelength behind, will travel a comoving distance
Z tobs +δtobs
dt
x2 = c , (2)
tem +δtem a(t)

where, by definition, λem = c δtem and λobs = c δtobs . Since the two points essentially leave the source instantaneously,
we can assume that the comoving distance remains constant, i.e. x1 = x2 , and thus the two integrals can be assumed
equal. This allows us to rearrange the limits to write
Z tem +δtem Z tobs +δtobs
dt dt
= . (3)
tem a(t) tobs a(t)

Finally, since a ≈ constant over the (very small) interval δt, we can approximate this relation as δtem /a(tem ) =
δtobs /a(tobs ). Thus, we must have λ ∝ a, i.e. the light’s wavelength is stretched by the expansion of space. Addi-
tionally, since a(tobs ) = 1 and redshift is defined as 1 + z = λobs /λem , we have, in general
1
a(tem ) = , (4)
1+z
for any observed source with measured redshift z where light was emitted in the past when the scale factor was a.
This is a simple but very important equation. Remember that redshift is measurable. This allows us to calculate the
scale factor of the Universe at the time when light started travelling from the object we are observing. Note, also,
that z = 0 for a source at the present day and z → ∞ as a → 0. Cosmologists frequently use redshift as a measure
of time - the higher its value, the further back in time we are looking.

2.1.2 Luminosity distance

The expansion of space also affects the observed flux from a distant source. Recall that flux is the energy or radiation
per unit area per unit time. We will leave the calculation of distance for now and concentrate on what happens to
the arriving photons. As space expands, two things happen to the photons:
1. The energy of each arriving photon is reduced by the factor Eobs /Eem = 1/(1 + z), as a direct result of the
increase in its wavelength.
2. The arrival rate of photons is also reduced by the same factor. We can see this from the argument above,
where we found that the time interval between two points in the light ray (which we can equally think of as
the interval between two photons) increases as δt ∝ a and a ∝ 1/(1 + z). Thus, we expect δtobs /δtem = 1 + z.

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These two effects require us to reduce the observed flux by a factor (1 + z)2 to get

L
Fobs = , (5)
4πd2 (1 + z)2

where L is the intrinsic luminosity of the source. Cosmologists often re-define this equation hide the redshift term
by defining the luminosity distance of a source, dL = d(1 + z), i.e.

L
Fobs = , (6)
4πd2L

to make it look like the standard formula for non-expanding space. Measuring the luminosity distance versus redshift
using standard candles, the modern version of the Hubble diagram, is a key cosmological test.

2.1.3 Cosmological redshift and Hubble’s Law

We can show explicitly how to get Hubble’s Law for nearby objects when using cosmological redshift. To do this,
we need to consider a Taylor expansion of the scale factor, a(t), around t = t0 (the present day). Let us define
all quantities with a zero subscript to be the present-day value (and leave in a0 for now, even though we take
a0 = 1).
Our Taylor expansion looks like
1
a(t) = a0 + ȧ0 (t − t0 ) + ä0 (t − t0 )2 + ... (7)
2
a(t) 1 ä0 a0 2
=⇒ = 1 + H0 (t − t0 ) + H0 (t − t0 )2 + ..., (8)
a0 2 ȧ20

where H0 ≡ ȧ0 /a0 . We will ignore the second-order term for now, and note that, close to the present day, |t−t0 |  1,
so we have a(t) ≈ 1 + H0 (t − t0 ). Similarly, since we have a ≈ 1, we must have z  1 and so can use the Binomial
expansion to approximate a = 1/(1 + z) as a ≈ 1 − z. Putting these together, we arrive at the result: z ≈ H0 (t0 − t),
or better: cz ≈ H0 c(t0 − t). Finally, since a ≈ 1 for nearby objects, we can approximate d = c(t0 − t) as the proper
distance travelled by light and thus recover Hubble’s Law, v = H0 d, where v = cz.

2.1.4 Area, volume and density

Consider two nearby points, with small proper separation δr ≡ |δr|. This separation will increase due to the
expansion of space, as δr = a(t)δx. We can generalise this to two and three dimensions (imagine a square and cube,
respectively); small elements of area and volume must expand as δA ∝ a2 and δV ∝ a3 respectively. Thus, the
number density of particles, n, must only change due to the volume expansion, i.e.

n = n0 a−3 = n0 (1 + z)3 , (9)

where n0 is the number density of particles at the present day (the comoving number density).
For non-relativistic particles (what we call matter in cosmology), their energy is dominated by their (constant) rest
mass. The mass density of matter with particle mass m is therefore just ρ = mn and evolves in the same way as
number density
ρ = ρ0 a−3 = ρ0 (1 + z)3 . (10)

For photons (radiation) we need to work with energy density, u, and can write the equivalent mass density through
u = ρc2 . Since the energy of a photon scales as E ∝ (1 + z) ∝ 1/a, the energy density of radiation can be written
as
u = u0 a−4 = u0 (1 + z)4 , (11)
so increases more rapidly with z than the matter density. These results confirm that the universe must have been
denser in the past and infinitely dense everywhere when a = 0 at the Big Bang.

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2.1.5 Age of the Universe today
Consider the previous (1st order) Taylor expansion where the scale factor increases linearly with time, a(t) =
(1 − H0 t0 ) + H0 t, where H0 is the Hubble constant and a0 = 1. Taking time to be measured since the Big Bang
(t = 0 when a = 0), the present age of the universe must be t0 = 1/H0 . This value is known as the Hubble time.
Setting H0 = 70 kms−1 Mpc−1 (or h = 0.7), we have t0 ≈ 14 Gyr. While just an estimate in practice (we will see
later that ȧ is not normally constant in time), this value is actually quite close (< 10%) to the best estimates from
the most accurate models.

2.1.6 The horizon - a solution to the Olbers paradox

The finite age of the Universe sets a maximum distance that light can travel, i.e. the distance since the Big Bang
when t = 0. This distance is known as the horizon (or more accurately, the particle horizon) and an estimate would
simply be dH ≈ c t0 ≈ c/H0 = 3000 h−1 Mpc. In practice, the horizon is larger than this as we need to account for
the expansion of space as the light travels; we will calculate the horizon for different cosmological models later in the
course. However, c/H0 is an important length scale in cosmology and is often referred to as the Hubble radius.
The horizon is what sets the size of our observable Universe; we cannot detect light from beyond this point. An
interesting consequence is that regions of our Universe will be causally disconnected if their separation is larger
than the particle horizon. This also means that the Olbers paradox is resolved - the flux we receive from distant
sources is finite. Taking light from stars/galaxies only, we expect the maximum distance to be even shorter than the
horizon because it takes time for the conditions to be right for stars to form (the early universe was a very extreme
environment).

2.2 Cosmic Microwave Background

The Big Bang model makes another very important prediction, the existence of a background of low-energy photons
known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (or CMB for short). The CMB is the oldest radiation that we observe,
originating from when the universe was only a few hundred thousand years old. We will study the physics of the
origin of the CMB later, but for now, consider some of its key properties.

2.2.1 Blackbody radiation

The CMB is one of the best examples of a blackbody spectrum in physics. Recall from last year’s Statistical Mechanics
course that photons in thermal equilibrium obey Bose-Einstein statistics with zero chemical potential, µ = 0. We
can write the spectral energy density of photons, i.e. the energy per unit volume per unit frequency as

8πh f3
uf (f, T ) =   . (12)
c3 exp hf − 1
kB T

1
This is known as Planck’s law and the spectrum is known as a Planck, or blackbody spectrum. The number
density of photons per unit frequency is then uf /(hf ).
We can integrate this function over all frequencies to get the total energy density of blackbody radiation
Z ∞
u(T ) = uf df (13)
0
8πh ∞ f 3 df
Z
=   (14)
c3 0 exp hf − 1
kB T
 4 Z ∞ 3
8πh kB T x dx
= , (15)
c3 h 0 ex−1

1 Named after the idea that to produce this radiation, photons enter a box through a hole small enough so they can never re-emerge

through it. After many successive absorptions and re-emissions by the internal walls (already at a fixed temperature T ), the photons also
reach thermal equilibrium with the same temperature.

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where, for the last result, we have used the substitution x = hf /(kB T ) and the integral is π 4 /15. We thus write
4σ 4
u(T ) = T , (16)
c
where
2π 5 kB
4
σ= (17)
15h c2
3

is known as the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. It is striking that the energy density only depends on one parameter:
the temperature, T . The CMB radiation is measured to have a temperature at the present day of TCMB = 2.725 K,
with an energy density uCMB ≈ 4.2 × 10−14 Jm−3 .
The above results are for the energy density of blackbody radiation. Some related quantities are as follows:
• With a CMB detector, we usually measure the surface brightness of radiation, Bf (f, T ) = 4π c
uf (f, T ). This is
the energy per unit area (on the detector), per unit time, per unit frequency, per unit solid angle (on the sky).
• Integrating over all frequencies, we get the bolometric value B(T ) = (σ/π)T 4 .
• The bolometric flux (radiated power per unit area) of blackbody radiation is found by integrating the surface
brightness over all solid angles (in a hemisphere), weighting each contribution by cos θ (the number of photons
crossing the surface is lower when at an angle to the surface normal)
Z 2π Z π/2
F = dφ B(T ) cos θ sin θ dθ = σT 4 , (18)
0 0

known as the Stefan-Boltzmann law - a remarkably simple result.

• Two other results that we will state here for use later are the radiation pressure, P = u/3 = ρc2 /3 and the
radiation entropy density, s = 4u/(3T ) = [16σ/(3c)]T 3 .

2.2.2 CMB in an expanding universe

In an expanding universe, we know that the energy density of radiation scales with redshift as u ∝ (1 + z)4 . We
also know that the energy density of blackbody radiation scales with temperature as u ∝ T 4 . Combining both these
results, the CMB temperature should scale with redshift T ∝ 1/a ∝ (1 + z), i.e. the radiation temperature was
higher in the past. More generally, the blackbody spectrum is preserved with the expansion, only the temperature
changes. This is important because in the Big Bang model, the CMB radiation was created in the early universe as
a result of the photons being in thermal equilibrium with the baryons. These interactions essentially stopped when
the baryons (mainly hydrogen and helium nuclei) and electrons combined to form atoms, with the CMB being the
relic radiation from that period (this will be covered in more detail later in the course).

2.3 Dark Matter and Dark Energy

We think that most (70%) of our Universe at the present day is made of mysterious Dark Energy, while out of
the remaining 30%, 25% is Dark Matter and 5% is normal (Baryonic) matter. Here, we will discuss some of the
important observational evidence for dark matter and dark energy.

2.3.1 Dark matter

Dark matter is thought to make up around 85% of all the matter in our Universe. Two of the most important pieces
of observational evidence for dark matter come from studying the kinematics (i.e. motions) of galaxies in clusters
and gas around galaxies.
Dark matter was suggested by Zwicky in 1933 when measuring galaxy velocities in the Coma cluster. The Virial
Theorem, in its simplest form, states that any gravitational system in equilibrium will satisfy the equation 2T +V = 0,
where T is the total kinetic energy of the system and V the total

 gravitational potential energy. The total kinetic
energy in the cluster galaxies can be written as T = (1/2)M v 2 , i.e. it depends on the mean-square speed; M is
the total mass in the galaxies. We can also reasonably assume (from dimensional analysis) that the potential energy

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will take the form V = −αGM 2 /R, where α is a dimensionless constant (of order unity in practice) and R is the size
(radius) of the system.
Applying the Virial Theorem, we have

2 αGM
v =

R 
v2 R
=⇒ M = , (19)
αG
so we can estimate the mass of the cluster using the peculiar velocities of the galaxies (by measuring their redshifts
and subtracting the mean value, which is the cosmological redshift of the cluster) within a radius R. Mass estimates
done this way are found to be at least 10 times larger than from the total stellar luminosity of the galaxies 2 . This
was the first evidence that there may be invisible, dark matter that is causing the galaxies to move faster.
A similar analysis can be done using the velocities of gas (or stars) in the edge-on disks of spiral galaxies. In this case,
the disk’s rotation velocity is plotted as a function of radius (known as a rotation
p curve). At large radius (beyond
most of the luminous mass), we would expect M to increase slowly, so that hv 2 i would decrease. In practice, the
rms speed is approximately constant at large radius, supporting the hypothesis that there is dark matter (in this
case making the disk rotate faster). We think that galaxies are at the centres of vast spherical distributions of dark
matter, known as dark matter haloes, that extend to around 10 times the size of the galaxy.

2.3.2 Dark energy and the deceleration parameter

The main evidence for dark energy comes from the observation that space is not only expanding, this expansion
is accelerating. Although we are not ready to calculate the details of a(t) yet, we can revisit our Taylor expansion
about t = t0
1
a(t) = a0 + ȧ0 (t − t0 ) + ä0 (t − t0 )2 + ... (20)
2
a(t) 1 ä0 a0 2
= 1 + H0 (t − t0 ) + H0 (t − t0 )2 + ... (21)
a0 2 ȧ20
1
= 1 + H0 (t − t0 ) − q0 H02 (t − t0 )2 + ..., (22)
2
where we have defined q0 ≡ −ä0 a0 /ȧ20 . This is the present-day value of the (dimensionless) deceleration parameter,
q ≡ −äa/ȧ2 . Note the sign of q is determined by the sign of the acceleration term ä
• If ä < 0 then q > 0 (expansion of space decelerates)
• If ä > 0 then q < 0 (expansion of space accelerates)
We will see later that the expansion dynamics is driven by the dominant mass/energy component at any given time;
both matter and radiation generically predict ä < 0 (q > 0) but observations of distant (extragalactic) supernovae
prefer models with q0 < 0 (i.e. an accelerating universe at the present day). Dark energy is the generic name given
to an additional energy component (with peculiar properties) that leads to this behaviour. The simplest model for
dark energy leading to accelerated expansion is known as the cosmological constant, Λ. In turn, the simplest model
that currently fits cosmological data is known as the Λ Cold Dark Matter model (or ΛCDM for short). In such a
model, radiation and matter drive the expansion at early times so the expansion of the universe was decelerating,
but the dark energy takes over at late times, leading to an accelerating universe. Cosmologists often refer to ΛCDM
as the standard cosmological model even though its main components (dark matter and dark energy) are not part of
the (current) standard model of particle physics; we have no idea what they are.

2 This is often expressed as a mass-to-light ratio, M/L in Solar units (M /L ). A value M/L[M /L ]  1 signifies evidence for dark
   
matter.