From Quarks to Black Holes

Abstract

With the work of Gamow, his students, and others it became obvious that particle physics was the key to an understanding of the early universe. Because of this, particle physicists soon began to take an interest in cosmology. And gradually a symbiosis of the two fields began which turned out to be beneficial to both. The cosmology of the early universe allowed particle physicists access to the greatest particle accelerator ever built—the big bang explosion. Incredible energies, infinitely higher than anything we can create here on Earth, occurred in the first few moments of this explosion. And the mathematical description (theory) of the explosion puts severe constraints on the types of particles that can exist in the universe. This has been particularly helpful to particle physicists. The benefit of the union to cosmologists has been equally great. With particle physicists joining in the struggle much of the arbitrariness and speculation has been taken out of cosmology; it has been made into a more testable, more respectable science. At one time you could get away with almost any type of speculation. No more. The merging of particle physics into cosmology has changed it forever.