vegevore - Physics Page 5: Cosmology: So, we have the concept of the "pH" of the Universe. Summary: The photons (vacuum energy) at the current temperature of 2.7 degK, are at an equilibrium with neutrino-antineutrino pairs. Yet the neutrinos interact so minimally with matter that they can travel faster than the photons that get scattered from matter and or energy in the present Universe, and thus expand the Universe faster than the photons can. Thus, the neutrinos lead to acceleration. Can this also explain inflation? If so, I propose the following scenario: - Near the beginning, there was only the photon soup (normal expansion). - As the Universe cooled, neutrinos formed in the soup but they interacted so minimally with the photons that they could escape the soup leading to inflation (fast expansion). - As the Universe cooled further, electrons condensed out of the soup. These scattered the neutrinos, via the weak interaction forces, thus halting the inflation (normal expansion). - But then protons formed allowing the first recombination to take place. Again the neutrinos can travel faster than the photons in that medium. This would again free the neutrinos, causing a new (and newly predicted) period of rapid expansion to occur (medium expansion). - As the first stars formed and heavily ionized the Universe again, this new period of rapid expansion was halted (normal expansion). - Finally, after the (2nd) recombination, which includes the present day, neutrinos again are relatively free of matter and we have this period of acceleration (slow expansion). Discussion: Periods of "normal expansion" occur as a result of coasting or inertia with no new force applied. Maybe this newly predicted period of rapid expansion could explain why astronomers are seeing evidence that the first galaxies formed earlier than previously thought. Maybe neutrino telescopes could give us a view of the larger universe.