The Cosmic Microwave Background

The Isotropic CMB Observed

• Discovery
  • Penzias & Wilson's prizewinning paper (1965)
  • Princeton group's companion paper
  • precursors & missed opportunities
    theory: Alpher & Herman prediction and update with unfortunate footnote on p. 206
    observation: McKellar cyanogen rotational temperature paper, punchline, and followup
• Present data
  • peeling away foregrounds from signal
  • frequency spectrum, in context of cosmic photon backgrounds
  • temperature
  • polarization

Implications for the Early Universe

• hot dense early state
• radiation domination