The Early Universe
The Universe evolved from a fully-ionized plasma to an almost neutral state in which molecules could form and the first stars were created. We are engaged in studies of the atomic and molecular processes that took place and were crucial to the formation of structure.
References
State resolved data for radiative association of H and H+ and for
photodissociation of H2+,
J. F. Babb, Ap. J. Suppl. 216 (2015) 21.
Comprehensive rate coefficients for electron-collision-induced
transitions in hydrogen,
D. Vrinceanu, R. Onofrio, and H. R. Sadeghpour,
Ap. J. 780 (2014 2.
The Highly Deuterated Chemistry of the Early Universe, C. D. Gay, P. C. Stancil, S. Lepp, and A. Dalgarno, Ap. J. 737 (2011) 44.
Recombination of H-2 by Raman association in the early universe, A. Dalgarno and Mark van der Loo, Ap. J. Lett. 646 (2006) L91-4.
J. Babb, H. Sadeghpour
A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.77 billion years. The far left depicts the earliest moment we can now probe, when a period of "inflation" produced a burst of exponential growth in the universe. (Size is depicted by the vertical extent of the grid in this graphic.) For the next several billion years, the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity. More recently, the expansion has begun to speed up again as the repulsive effects of dark energy have come to dominate the expansion of the universe. The afterglow light seen by WMAP was emitted about 375,000 years after inflation and has traversed the universe largely unimpeded since then. The conditions of earlier times are imprinted on this light; it also forms a backlight for later developments of the universe.
Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team
