Neutrinos, Helium and the Early Universe: A Personal View
Abstract
It is about 25 years since the detection of the cosmic microwave radiation. This discovery and the observed helium abundances of stars and gas clouds, gave support to the hot big bang cosmological theory of Gamow (1952) and colleagues. What follows is a very personal account of developments during the past quarter century. It is stimulated by recent measurements of the helium abundance of gaseous nebulae and of the half-life of the neutron and by experiments showing that there are almost certainly only three types of low mass neutrino. These results are consistent with the standard hot big-bang model of the early universe, which continues to be the best description of its large scale properties.
- Publication:
-
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990QJRAS..31..371T
- Keywords:
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- Evolution (Development);
- Helium;
- Neutrinos;
- Universe;
- Abundance;
- Big Bang Cosmology;
- Relic Radiation;
- Astrophysics