AST201H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 22: Electroweak Interaction, Planck Units, Grand Unified Theory

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST201H1
• Professor: Michael Reid

Document Summary

The universe is filled with a faint glow of radiation, which is believed to be remnant heat from the big bang. Observations show that the universe is cooling with time as it expands, which implies that it must have been hotter/denser in the past. The universe was so hot during the first few seconds that photons could transform themselves into matter (and vice-versa) in accordance with. When two photons collide with a total energy greater than twice the mass- energy of an electron ( electro n particles: a negatively charged electron and an antielectron (aka positron). , they can create two new s mass c. 2: the electron is a particle of matter and the antielectron is a particle of antimatter. The early universe was filled with an extremely hot and dense blend of photons, matter, and antimatter, converting furiously back and forth.