Photon decoupling occurs when the Thomson-scattering rate drops below the Hubble expansion rate. Photons then free stream and form the cosmic microwave background.
The physical Thomson scattering rate equals the inverse photon mean scattering time. Comparing it with the Hubble parameter gives a local approximate decoupling criterion. A more precise last-scattering temperature is obtained from optical depth and the visibility maximum; these conventions need not give exactly the same temperature.

Ancestors (5)

  1. Recombination (cosmology)
  2. Cosmology
  3. Branches of physics
  4. Physics
  5. Home

Incoming links (13)

View article source

Discussion (0)

New discussion

There are no discussions about this article yet.

Articles by others on the same topic (0)

There are currently no matching articles.
See all articles in the same topic Create my own version