Who Chose the CMB Temperature?
Currently the best temperature is determined to be 2.7255 +/- 0.0006 Kelvin
(Fixsen et al. 2009, ApJ, 707, 916).
- Looks suspiciously like e Kelvin (=2.718281828 K).
- Is it the triple point of water divided by 100 (=2.7315 K)?
- Could it be precisely 30/11 Kelvin (=2.727 K)?
- What about -ln(9
) Kelvin (=2.723 K)?
- Or perhaps
(15/2) Kelvin (=2.739 K)?
- How about (2
/
)4
mec2/k (=2.762 K)?
- Or maybe (2/5) (
Gme /
2
mp)1/4
mpc2/k (=2.719 K)?
- Or even (4/
)
-3
G1/2 mpc2/k
(=2.741 K)?
- Or even better 16
2
G1/4 mec2/k
(=2.727 K)?
- Or closer still (45/2
4)1/4
G1/4
-3/4
(me/mp)3/8
mec2/k
(=2.7254 K)?
- Or in terms of Planck units, what about
e-73TPl (=2.805 K),
where TPl=
((hbar)c5/G)/k ?
- [and e-73 is close to
e-
e
]
- Or turning to imperial units such as the League (=3 miles), how about
hc/k (µL)-1 (=2.98 K)?
[Here
=
e2/4
0
c(hbar) and
G = G me2/
c(hbar)]
Let me know if you have other stupid ideas!
Interested surfers with nothing better to do might like to think of reasons
why the CMB is at -270.425° Celsius or -454.765° Fahrenheit.
Douglas Scott
dscott"AT"astro.ubc.ca
Last revised: May 2011