- What is the Planck time? Why do we have so little understanding of the origin of the Universe?
- Sketch the unification diagram marking all the symmetry breaking points. What occurred at the 1st symmetry
breaking point?
- What is the spacetime foam era? What is the problem with this era in terms of the production of
mini-blackholes? How is this resolved by Hawking radiation?
- Why is symmetry so important in cosmology? What is symmetry breaking?
- What is the flatness and horizon problems? How does inflation resolve these problems?
- Describe the equilibrium between matter and energy.
- Describe runaway quark production.
- Describe the differences between high and low mass matter particles in terms of energy needed to generated,
stability and resistance to destruction.
- What is the paradox concerning baryongenesis as express by the baryon number? How is this resolved by CP
violation?
- Describe nucleosynthesis.
- Describe how the abundance of light elements reflects the density of baryonic matter.
- What is the origin of the cosmic microwave background?
- What is the steady state model? How does the CMB disprove the steady state theory?
- What is the Anthropic Principle?
- How is the Anthropic Principle resolved by inflation?
- What is entropy and how does it relate to the fate of the Universe?
- Describe the four final eras of the Universe.
- What is Fermi's Paradox?
