Just under 13.8 billion years ago, our Universe was an infinitesimal point. Just under four hundred thousand years later, however, it had become a hot, dense, highly ionized plasma, with a temperature of about 5000 degrees Fahrenheit and a density about 109 times that of today (1). Then something fascinating happened. The plasma underwent a rapid recombination process, in which protons bonded with electrons to form hydrogen, emitting photons with each reaction and providing the fingerprints of today's Universe (2). One of the most interesting aspects of the study of these first moments concerned the non-uniformity of the Universe. This non-uniformity, or anisotropy as it is called, is reflected in the non-homogeneous structure of today's Universe. During moments of recombination, fluctuations in energy density due to various proposed causes triggered photon scattering. With the expansion of the Universe, this same inhomogeneity has amplified, in the sense that by studying the original dispersion in the photosphere during moments of recombination, it is possible to understand to a large extent the current structure of the Universe (2). That is, in essence, the modern Universe and the microwave background are only “image[s] of the surface [of the last scattering” that occurred approximately 378,000 years after the Big Bang (1). Therefore, in this article, I will analyze the nature of elementary particles and photons in the Universe upon recombination and discuss the possibilities of how a type of scattering known as Compton scattering could be used to help describe the nonuniform structure of the Current universe. The Universe at the time of recombination was theoretically approximated to... middle of paper... a change would have affected the dynamics of the recombination Universe, causing distortions that can be seen 13.8 billion years later in the form of a non-uniform cosmos. Studying these dynamics closely can give us a much better idea of why the Universe is structured the way it is today and allow us to better hypothesize what we should be looking for when studying deep space and galactic structures. However, the effects manifested by CMB distortions are small, and NASA's COBE data was not sensitive enough to detect them. Based on the constraints of the new PIXIE mission, the possibility of reconciling these synthesized theories with experimental data seems likely (6). As shown in Figure 3, PIXIE limitations are much minor. If not PIXIE, the Planck mission could also serve this goal. However, until the data arrives, astrophysics can only wait.
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