Photon-only matter-radiation equality

ID: photon-only-matter-radiation-equality

Nonrelativistic matter density grows as , whereas freely redshifting photon energy density grows as . Their equality gives the displayed redshift. Radiation inferred solely from a cosmic microwave background temperature excludes the relic neutrino energy density, so the resulting redshift differs from total matter-radiation equality. Comparing density parameters at one epoch is equivalent to comparing the densities because their common critical-density denominator cancels.

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