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Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, 1994, Volume 164, Number 8, Pages 889–896
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3367/UFNr.0164.199408f.0889
(Mi ufn997)
 

This article is cited in 10 scientific papers (total in 10 papers)

FROM THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS

How Gamow calculated the temperature of the background radiation or a few words about the fine art of theoretical physics

A. D. Chernin

Lomonosov Moscow State University, P. K. Sternberg Astronomical Institute
Abstract: In a paper published in 1953, i.e., more than a decade before the observational discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, George Gamow predicted theoretically the temperature of this radiation. He estimated it to be 7 K, which is very close to the subsequently measured value of about 3 K. Gamow found the present temperature of the background radiation on the basis of general formulas of cosmological dynamics. This prediction was in no way related to primordial nucleosynthesis.This circumstance has and is still causing misunderstanding in those cases in which the authors have raised doubts about Gamow's results, although an actual error has never been demonstrated. A detailed analysis makes it possible to understand how Gamow's calculation is possible. The problem lies in the fact that Gamow makes a certain additional implicit assumption which allows him to dispense with information on nucleosynthesis. This assumption is discussed in the context of the state of cosmology in the period from the fifties to the seventies, and of the current status of this branch of science.
Received: July 1, 1994
English version:
Physics–Uspekhi, 1994, Volume 37, Issue 8, Pages 813–820
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1070/PU1994v037n08ABEH000041
Bibliographic databases:
Document Type: Article
PACS: 01.60.+q, 98.70.Vc
Language: Russian


Citation: A. D. Chernin, “How Gamow calculated the temperature of the background radiation or a few words about the fine art of theoretical physics”, UFN, 164:8 (1994), 889–896; Phys. Usp., 37:8 (1994), 813–820
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