819 - 1 - 5.0150209 All Objects and Some Questions
819 - 1 - 5.0150209 All Objects and Some Questions
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I. INTRODUCTION radiation (Xr), matter (Xm), and finally today, vacuum energy
or dark energy (XK ). The three transitions among these four
A. Condensation of objects epochs are known, respectively, as reheating, matter-
The early Universe was a hot plasma of fundamental rela- radiation equality, and the beginning of vacuum energy
tivistic particles: quarks, leptons, photons, and gluons. There domination.
were no composite objects such as protons, atoms, planets, The details of inflation are largely unknown.3,12 For sim-
or galaxies.1–5 As the Universe cooled, composite objects plicity, we assume the initial condition at the Planck time
condensed out of the background much as droplets of steam that the Universe was at the Planck temperature and the
condense out of hot water vapor as it cools. This condensa- Planck density (tp, Tp, and qp, respectively). We assume the
Starting with inflation, the dominant densities have been where To ¼ 2:725 K is the temperature of the current cosmic
the densities of the false vacuum energy of inflation (XKi ), microwave background (CMB) photons.19 The g in Eq. (2)
819 Am. J. Phys. 91 (10), October 2023 http://aapt.org/ajp # 2023 Published under an exclusive license by AAPT 819
as the two degrees of freedom of photons are joined in ther-
mal equilibrium by the degrees of freedom of the increas-
ingly numerous relativistic particles. Hot relativistic particles
act like massless photons since their energy, E ¼ ðp2 c2
þm2 c4 Þ1=2 is dominated by their momentum and can be
well-approximated by E pc. As we go back in time, get-
ting closer to the big bang, g increases. Thus, we need to
replace Eq. (1) with Eq. (2), from which we can see that as
we get closer to the big bang, T does not increase as fast as
a1 . In the lower panel of Fig. 1, we can see that g begins
to increase for t ⱗ 102 s. If photons are the only form of radi-
ation, Eqs. (1) and (2) are identical since g ¼ 2 (one degree
of freedom for each of the two photon spin states).
Currently, neutrinos are not in thermal equilibrium with
the 3 K photons of the cosmic microwave background. The
relativistic degrees of freedom of neutrinos are not included
in our g for temperatures T ⱗ 1010 K when they are
decoupled from photons.
Similar to temperature in Eq. (2), the energy density qr of
a relativistic gas also depends on g . If we only have pho-
tons, the energy density is given in Eq. (3). However, if there
are other relativistic particles in thermal equilibrium with
photons at a common temperature T, to compute their com-
bined energy density we need to multiply Eq. (3) by g =2 to
obtain the generalization Eq. (4).1,7,8 Finally, using Eq. (2),
we substitute for T in Eq. (4) and obtain Eq. (5): the energy
Fig. 1. (Color online) Top panel: The decreasing average temperature and
density of the Universe as a function of time (and on the upper x-axis as a
density in all relativistic degrees of freedom (in thermal
function of scale factor a). The solid black line is the energy density of radi- equilibrium with photons) as a function of scale factor and
ation and matter (qr þ qm ). The dashed black line is the energy density of g ,3,12
the vacuum. The red line is the average temperature of the Universe. The
820 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, October 2023 C. H. Lineweaver and V. M. Patel 820
29 October 2023 15:21:40
Fig. 2. (Color online) Masses, sizes, and relative densities of objects in our Universe. Time-dependent background densities are color-coded as in Fig. 1. The
diagonal white dashed isodensity lines correspond to the intersections in Fig. 1 of the vertical isochron lines with the black density line. Gravity and quantum
uncertainty prevent objects of a given mass from being smaller than their corresponding Schwarzschild radius [Eq. (6)] or Compton wavelength [Eq. (7)].
Schwarzschild black holes lie on the black m / r diagonal line which is the lower boundary of the “forbidden by gravity” region. The masses and Compton
wavelengths of the top quark (t), Higgs boson (Ho), proton (p), electron (e), and neutrinos () are plotted along the Compton (m / r 1 ) diagonal line. Among
these, the top quark has the smallest Compton wavelength, because it has the largest mass: 173GeVc2 . The smallest possible object is a Planck-mass black
hole indicated by the white dot labeled “instanton” (Ref. 20). Its mass and size are ðm; rÞ ¼ ðmp ; lp Þ. The smallest observable (not yet evaporated) primordial
black hole (PBH) that could have survived until today has approximately the same size as a proton (Ref. 21). The large low-mass black dot in the SMBH (super
massive black hole) range is the 4 106 solar mass black hole at the center of our galaxy (Ref. 22), while the more massive large black dot is Ton 618. The
dashed horizontal line at m ¼ mp emphasizes the orthogonal symmetry of black holes (m / r) and particles (m / r 1 ). Our Universe is represented by the
“Hubble radius” and has a mass and size that places it on the black hole line, seemingly suggesting that our Universe is a massive, low-density black hole (Sec.
III A). The black rectangle containing neutron stars (“NS”), white dwarfs (“WD”), and brown dwarfs (“BD”) indicates the size of the parameter space plotted in
Fig. 3. Less comprehensive versions of this plot can be found at Refs. 20 and 23–28. See the supplementary material for the data used to make this plot (Ref. 56).
objects along this isodensity line have the density of water, current matter density of the Universe. For completeness, we
and because the entire Universe had this density at the end of have also plotted the largest known voids. The current matter
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, 103 s after the big bang. density is the longest diagonal isodensity line on the right
Protons, neutrons, and neutron stars are found along the labeled at the top “now 1017 s”). This density is the value in
slope ¼ 3, nuclear density line which is 14 orders of mag- Fig. 1 of the black (qr þ qm ) line at t ¼ now.
nitude more dense than anything made of atoms:
qnuclear =qatomic 1014 . It is labeled “nuclear 106 s” because B. Black holes and the zone forbidden by gravity
the entire Universe was at this nuclear density a millionth of
a second after the big bang. In Fig. 2, gravity and quantum uncertainty create large for-
The largest objects in the upper right are super-clusters of bidden triangular regions where no known objects can exist.
galaxies with densities approximately 20% larger than the All Schwarzschild black holes, from the smallest Planck-
821 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, October 2023 C. H. Lineweaver and V. M. Patel 821
Fig. 3. (Color online) A zoomed-in version of the small rectangle in Fig. 2 containing neutron stars (“NS”), white dwarfs (“WD”), main sequence stars, brown
dwarfs (“BD”), and the heaviest mass planet (13 Jupiter masses). This plot illustrates the role of degeneracy pressure in the gravitational collapse of stars.
Brown dwarfs cannot collapse further due to electron degeneracy pressure, preventing fusion ignition in their cores. They will not become main sequence stars.
When main sequence stars (right) run out of fuel they collapse into white dwarfs held up by electron degeneracy pressure. White dwarfs follow the radius-
mass relation r / m1=3 (blue dashed line) (Ref. 32). When a white dwarf accretes material and its mass approaches the Chandrasekhar limit 1:4 M (Ref.
30), it becomes a neutron star “NS” which, with further mass accretion, becomes a black hole “BH,” see Sec. II D.
mass instantons to the super-massive black holes (SMBH) at m / r1 line [Eq. (7)] delimiting the triangular “quantum
the centers of the largest galaxies, lie on the diagonal m / r uncertainty” region in Fig. 2.
line labelled “black holes.” Black holes lie on this line In addition to composite particles, we also plot fundamen-
because the radius and mass of a Schwarzschild black hole tal structureless particles, e.g., quarks and leptons. As exam-
are linearly proportional,29 ples, we plot the top quark, electron, and neutrinos. These all
lie along the Compton wavelength boundary. For complete-
2G ness, we would also like to plot massless photons. However,
rs ¼ m: (6)
c2 since the Compton wavelength of a massless particle (pho-
822 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, October 2023 C. H. Lineweaver and V. M. Patel 822
the star will continue to collapse, overcoming neutron degen- where lp is the Planck length and the Planck mass
eracy pressure and collapsing into a black hole. mp ¼ ðhc=GÞ1=2 . Thus, the Compton wavelength of a
Planck-mass particle equals the Planck length: kc ðmp Þ ¼ lp .
III. SOME FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS However, what about the black hole diagonal line? Is the
Schwarzschild radius of a Planck-mass black hole equal to
A. Is the Universe a black hole? the Planck length?
In our expanding Universe, Hubble’s law relates the reces- 1=2 1=2
sion velocities to the distance: vrec ¼ H r. At a specific dis- 2 G mp 2 G hc hG
rs ðmp Þ ¼ 2
¼ 2 ¼2 3 ¼ 2 lp :
tance rH called the Hubble radius, the recession velocity is c c G c
equal to the speed of light, (13)
c There is an unexpected extra factor of 2. Thus, the two diag-
rH ¼ : (8)
H onal lines do not cross at exactly ðlp ; mp Þ. Instead we have
the radius of a Planck-mass black hole equal to twice the
The Hubble volume is a sphere of radius rH centered on us Compton wavelength of a Planck-mass particle (see p. 225
and is often taken as the size of the Universe. At present, of Ref. 38).
rH 14 Gly.33 In Fig. 2, the most massive point on the black Insight into this factor of 2 may be found by considering
hole line is labeled “Hubble radius” at the point ðmU ; rH Þ not the simplified case of a non-rotating Schwarzschild black
where the mass of the Universe is the critical density times hole but the more general case of a rotating Kerr black hole.
its volume: mU ¼ qc ð4=3Þ p rH3 . For convenience, we first define a length proportional to the
Using Eq. (6), we can write the density of a black hole as angular momentum L per unit mass rL ¼ ðL=mÞ c [Ref. 16, p
60, Eq. (2.100)]. Then, in the equatorial plane of the rotating
3 black hole, we have singularity solutions
m m m c2
qBH ¼ ¼ ¼ (9) " #1=2
V 4 3 4 2Gm
pr p rs rs 2
3 s 3 r6 ¼ 6 rL2 ; (14)
2 2
3c6
¼ m2 : (10)
32pG3 where the 6 indicates there are two solutions and the angular
momentum parameter rL can take on values in the range
823 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, October 2023 C. H. Lineweaver and V. M. Patel 823
maximally rotating black hole, the two horizons merge, The history of objects in the Universe can be seen as a his-
r6 ¼ rs =2. The inner (Cauchy) and outer horizons for a max- tory of condensations of composite objects from an undiffer-
imally rotating Planck-mass black hole are both equal to the entiated background. Although composite objects condensed
Planck length: r6 ¼ lp ¼ kc ðmp Þ. when the binding energy of the object exceeded the back-
The Reissner–N€ordstrom metric for a charged (non-rotat- ground energy, notice in Fig. 2 that no known objects con-
ing) black hole leads to analogous solutions: maximally dense before the electroweak (EW) energy scale at 1010 s,
charged Planck-mass black holes have r6 ðmp Þ ¼ rs =2 because the binding energies of all known composite objects
¼ lp .39,40 Thus, the most fundamental length in both the Kerr are less than the background energy at these early times.
and Reissner-N€ ordstrom metrics for a Planck-mass black Perhaps there are composite objects embedded in the quark-
hole is the Planck length lp ¼ rs =2. In Fig. 2, if we had repre- gluon plasma (QGP) held together by the unified strong,
sented the radius of a black hole by the average of the outer weak and electromagnetic forces. Two important open ques-
horizon and the inner (Cauchy) horizon: rBH ¼ ðrþ þ r Þ=2, tions are: What were the first composite objects? and If we
the black hole line and the Compton wavelength line would consider virtual particles to be objects, where do they belong
cross exactly at the instanton point ðlp ; mp Þ. in the diagram?
The Planck-mass instanton is the smallest mass a black There is a long inspiring pedagogical tradition in physics
hole can have without entering the region of quantum uncer- of putting everything into one log-log plot. This tradition
tainty. Instantons seem to be the smallest objects in the includes a logarithmic overview of all space (powers of
Universe (white dot in Fig. 2).20 On the upper left side of ten53), a logarithmic overview of all time (time in powers of
Fig. 1, we have assumed the initial condition that the ten54), and “the complete history of the Universe” (Fig. 3.7
Universe started out at the Planck time with the Planck den- of Ref. 1). Okun’s “the physical theories cube” (Fig. 2 of
sity and Planck temperature. In Fig. 2, the intersection point Ref. 55) is a powerful pedagogical tool that enables us to
of the vertical white line at the Planck length and the diago- imagine the variation of three fundamental constants 1=c, G,
nal dashed white line at the Planck density is an instanton. and h. Each of the eight vertices of his cube corresponds to
different physical theories.
The Hawking temperature of an instanton is the Planck tem-
Here, we provide an overview of the history of the
perature.16 Thus, we have assumed that the initial conditions
Universe and the sequence of composite objects (e.g., pro-
of the Universe are that of an instanton. Instantons seem to
tons, planets, galaxies) that condensed out of the background
be an essential ingredient for quantum cosmology, and their
824 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 91, No. 10, October 2023 C. H. Lineweaver and V. M. Patel 824
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