---------------------------------------------------- HISTORY EVENTS IN AN INFLATIONARY BIG BANG COSMOLOGY ---------------------------------------------------- NIEL BRANDT (THANKS TO CARL AUDE FOR CONVERSION INTO ASCII) Time (s) T (Kelvin) Reference Event THE QUANTUM GRAVITY ERA 1*10^{-43} 1*10^{32} KT 72 Quantum limit of classical general relativity THE INFLATION AND SYMMETRY BREAKING ERA 1*10^{-38} 1*10^{29} KT 72 Limit of perturbative interaction thermalization of universe 1*10^{-35} 1*10^{28} KT 72 Grand unification spontaneous symmetry breaking 1*10^{-34} 1*10^{27} KT 274 Approximate start of inflation 1*10^{-32} 1*10^{27} KT 274 Approximate start of reheating and end of inflation 1*10^{-11} 3*10^{15} KT 72 Electroweak unification spontaneous symmetry breaking THE QUARK-LEPTON ERA 2*10^{-7} 2*10^{13} HA 353 Tauon anti-tauon annihilation 1*10^{-5} 2*10^{12} KT 72 Formation of hadrons from quarks 7*10^{-5} 1*10^{12} HA 353 Muon anti-muon annihilation 5*10^{-4} 4*10^{11} KT 159, 281 By this time the universe has a baryon-antibaryon asymmetry which results from post-inflationary B,C,CP violating processes 1*10^{-1} 3*10^{10} BS Neutral current weak interactions become too slow and neutrinos decouple 1*10^{0} 1*10^{10} BS Charged current weak interactions become too slow and the neutron to proton ratio freezes out 1*10^{1} 5*10^{9} BS Electron positron annihilation THE RADIATION ERA 1*10^{2} 1*10^{9} BS Typical photon energies drop below the deuteron binding energy and nucleosynthesis begins 1*10^{3} 4*10^{8} BS Particle energies drop below Coulomb barrier energies and nucleosynthesis ends 4*10^{10} 6*10^{4} KT 77 Matter density becomes equal to radiation density THE MATTER ERA 4*10^{12} 3.5*10^{3} KT 78 Electrons and protons recombine into hydrogen atoms 6*10^{12} 3.0*10^{3} KT 80 Photon decoupling 2*10^{16} 20 HA 349 Start of the formation of galaxies 8*10^{16} --- --- Approximate peak epoch of quasar activity X-1.4*10^{17} --- KT 12 Formation of the solar system X-9.9*10^{16} --- HA 390 Emergence of life on Earth X = 4.7*10^{17} 2.726 KT 12 Today These values are rough estimates only. I have taken Omega_0 = 1, Lambda_0 = 0, and h = 1. BS = Boesgaard & Steigman, Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 23, 322 HA = Harrison, Cosmology: The Science of the Universe KT = Kolb & Turner, The Early Universe