Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Spontaneous generation of density perturbations in the early Universe

Abstract

A long-standing problem in cosmology has been to understand the origins of density inhomogeneities in the Universe. Calculations involving inhomogeneities have for the most part required the assumption of some initial spectrum of perturbations, which is inserted ‘by hand’. We present here a mechanism for the spontaneous creation of density perturbations during the transition in the early Universe from unconfined quark matter to hadronic matter. The subsequent evolution of these perturbations remains a problem for further study.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schramm, D. N. & Steigman, G. Gen. Rel. Grav. 13, 101–107 (1981).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Olive, K. A. Nucl. Phys. B190, 483–503 (1981).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Press, W. H. & Vishniac, E. T. Astrophys. J. 236, 323–334 (1980).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Ostriker, J. P. & Cowie, L. Astrophys. J. Lett. 243, L127–131 (1981).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Schramm, D. N., Crawford, M. & Olive, K. A. Proc. Symp. on Ultra-High Energy Heavy Ion Collisions, Berkeley (1979).

  6. Eichten, E., Gottfried, K., Kinoshita, T., Lane, K. D. & Yan, T. M. Phys. Rev. D17, 3090–3117 (1978).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Celmaster, W., Georgi, H. & Machacek, M. Phys. Rev. D17, 879–885 (1978).

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Carr, B. J. Astrophys. J. 201, 1–19 (1975).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wilkensen, D. Proc. R. astr. Soc. Meet., London, (in the press).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Crawford, M., Schramm, D. Spontaneous generation of density perturbations in the early Universe. Nature 298, 538–540 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298538a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/298538a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing