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    PHYS30392 Notes Natunits

    Uploaded by

    Itachi Uchiha
    1. The document introduces natural units, where fundamental constants like the Boltzmann constant kB, Planck's constant ħ, and the speed of light c are set equal to 1. This simplifies formulas and clarifies the underlying physics. 2. Examples are given of how quantities like the gravitational constant G, the energy density of the CMB, and the Planck distribution function simplify in natural units. 3. The temperature of the CMB is calculated in natural units to be 2.3 × 10−13 GeV.

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    PHYS30392 Notes Natunits

    Uploaded by

    Itachi Uchiha
    10 views2 pages
    1. The document introduces natural units, where fundamental constants like the Boltzmann constant kB, Planck's constant ħ, and the speed of light c are set equal to 1. This simplifies formulas and clarifies the underlying physics. 2. Examples are given of how quantities like the gravitational constant G, the energy density of the CMB, and the Planck distribution function simplify in natural units. 3. The temperature of the CMB is calculated in natural units to be 2.3 × 10−13 GeV.

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    PHYS30392_notes_natunits

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    1. The document introduces natural units, where fundamental constants like the Boltzmann constant kB, Planck's constant ħ, and the speed of light c are set equal to 1. This simplifies formulas and clarifies the underlying physics. 2. Examples are given of how quantities like the gravitational constant G, the energy density of the CMB, and the Planck distribution function simplify in natural units. 3. The temperature of the CMB is calculated in natural units to be 2.3 × 10−13 GeV.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    10 views2 pages

    PHYS30392 Notes Natunits

    Uploaded by

    Itachi Uchiha
    1. The document introduces natural units, where fundamental constants like the Boltzmann constant kB, Planck's constant ħ, and the speed of light c are set equal to 1. This simplifies formulas and clarifies the underlying physics. 2. Examples are given of how quantities like the gravitational constant G, the energy density of the CMB, and the Planck distribution function simplify in natural units. 3. The temperature of the CMB is calculated in natural units to be 2.3 × 10−13 GeV.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    PHYS30392 Cosmology

    Week 7 - Supplementary Material

    1 Natural Units
    In weeks 7-9 we will discuss the thermal history of the universe. For this material, we will use an alternative system
    of units, known as natural units where we set three fundamental constants kB = ~ = c = 1 (even though they have
    different dimensions) and choose to measure energy in GeV units 1 . First, let’s start with Boltzmann’s constant; we
    can write the dimensions of this constant as
    [Energy]
    [kB ] = , (1)
    [Temperature]
    so its numerical value clearly reflects the units we choose for measuring both energy and temperature. Now, let us
    convert the energy unit to GeV

    kB = 1.38 × 10−23 J K−1


    = (1.16 × 1013 )−1 GeV K−1 . (2)

    If we choose our temperature unit to be 1.16 × 1013 K, we have kB = 1 in our new system of units. This allows us
    to hide the constant and make our energy and temperature units equivalent, i.e. we can write

    1 GeV ≡ 1.16 × 1013 K, (3)

    so we can write temperatures in GeV units. Similarly, with Planck’s constant

    ~ = 1.05 × 10−34 J s
    = 6.58 × 10−25 GeV s. (4)

    If we again measure energy in GeV units but now measure time in units of 6.58 × 10−25 s, we have ~ = 1 in our new
    system of units and can write
    1 GeV−1 ≡ 6.58 × 10−25 s, (5)
    allowing us to write down time in GeV−1 units, or equivalently frequencies in GeV units. Thirdly, for the speed of
    light in a vacuum, we can write

    c2 = 9 × 1016 J kg−1
    = (1.78 × 10−27 )−1 GeV kg−1 . (6)

    Thus, measuring energy in GeV and mass in units of 1.78 × 10−27 kg gives us c = 1 and we can write

    1 GeV ≡ 1.78 × 10−27 kg. (7)

    From these new units, we derive the unit of length using dimensional analysis
    s
    [Energy]
    [Length] = [Time]. (8)
    [Mass]

    Combining the above results, we can write


    r
    −1 1.6 × 10−10
    1 GeV ≡ 6.58 × 10−25 m
    1.78 × 10−27
    ≡ 1.97 × 10−16 m. (9)
    1 Recall that 1 GeV = 1.6 × 10−10 J. This energy scale is convenient (around the rest mass of a proton or neutron), but we could,

    instead, choose to use a different energy unit such as 1 MeV.

    1
    1.1 Examples of Using Natural Units

    Two advantages of natural units are that they (1) simplify formulae and (2) can make the physics clearer. Here are
    a few examples.
    1. Another important constant which we have not set to 1 is the gravitational constant, G. Let’s work out its
    value in natural units. Writing 1 GeV = αM kg where αM = 1.78 × 10−27 , and similarly for length (L) and
    time (T ) units, we have

    G = 6.67 × 10−11 kg−1 m3 s−2


    = 6.67 × 10−11 αM αL αT GeV−2
    −3 2
    −2
    = 1.22 × 1019 GeV . (10)

    This number in brackets is known as the Planck mass, mPl , so we can write G = m−2
    Pl in natural units.

    2. The energy density of the CMB radiation at the present day is

    uγ = 4.2 × 10−14 J m−3


    = 2.6 × 10−4 αL
    3
    GeV4
    = 2.0 × 10−51 GeV4 . (11)

    The energy density is u = (4σ/c)T 4 where the Stefan-Boltzmann constant can be written as σ = (π 2 /60)[kB
    4
    /(~3 c2 )].
    2
    In natural units, we have σ = π /60 and so the energy density simplifies to

    u = (π 2 /15)T 4 . (12)

    Thus, the present-day temperature of the CMB is

    TCMB = (15uγ /π 2 ) = 2.3 × 10−13 GeV. (13)

    3. We know that the energy of a particle can be expressed in terms of its rest-mass energy and momentum as
    E 2 = (pc)2 + (mc2 )2 . In natural units this simplifies to E 2 = p2 + m2 , where E, p and m are all expressed in
    energy (GeV) units.
    4. The Planck distribution function can be simplified to
    −1
    8πhf 3
      
    hf
    u(f, T ) df = exp −1 df
    c3 kB T
       −1
    1 ~ 3 ~ω
    = ω exp −1 dω
    π 2 c3 kB T
    ω3 h ω i−1
    = exp − 1 dω. (14)
    π2 T

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