The equation of state makes the cosmological continuity equation imply constant energy density . For , put . Solving both the Friedmann equation and Friedmann acceleration equation gives
Up to shifts of cosmic time and time reversal, the positive scale factors are for , for , and on for . They are the flat, closed and open slicings of de Sitter spacetime. The open zero is a coordinate boundary with finite Ricci scalar and finite Kretschmann scalar .
For the expanding flat branch, the cosmological event horizon has comoving radial distance and proper distance in cosmology . An event on the horizon reaches the central comoving observer only at infinite reception time; events beyond it never do.
Wave-action density Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
With phase convention , , the wave-action density associated with an averaged Lagrangian is ; the matching flux is . These derivatives are taken before substituting any dispersion relation.
For , one finds and . The averaged energy density of the corresponding linear wave equation is . On a nonzero-frequency dispersion branch, , so . The sign of depends on the frequency and phase convention; it is not independently specified by calling it an energy-like quantity.
Wien's displacement law Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-18
Wien's displacement law says that the wavelength maximizing the Planck function per unit wavelength, , moves inversely with absolute temperature:
Here is the Wien displacement constant. Heating an ideal blackbody therefore shifts this peak toward shorter wavelengths, while also increasing its emission at every fixed wavelength. The peak identifies where equal narrow wavelength intervals carry the most power; it is not a single emitted wavelength. Planck's law supplies the full curve, and the Stefan–Boltzmann law supplies its integral.
Specify the spectral coordinate before finding a peak. The frequency form of Wien's displacement law maximizes , which is spectral radiance per unit frequency. Its maximum is not . The frequency and wavelength spectral radiance conversion changes the density as well as the horizontal coordinate; the existing frequency and wavelength peaks of Planck's law give a complementary numerical comparison.
In his 11 December 1911 Nobel lecture, Wilhelm Wien explained the displacement principle through a thought experiment: compress black-body radiation between reflecting moving walls. Work against radiation pressure raises the energy density, while reflection changes each frequency by the Doppler effect. The Second law of thermodynamics connects the resulting spectrum to one at a higher temperature. This determines how the spectrum scales between temperatures, without determining its complete shape. The Wien approximation is a separate, restricted spectral formula.[ref]
Figure 1.
Wien's displacement law: spectral peaks and inverse temperature scaling
. Left: Planck function curves divided by their own maxima, for three stipulated temperatures. This normalization hides the increase in absolute spectral radiance. Right: the peak wavelength follows ; a tenfold rise in temperature divides the peak wavelength by ten. The curves are computed ideal blackbody predictions. Details.