Have we misidentified the origin of CMB and what implications this might have?

Sabine Hossenfelder talked about a highly interesting recent theoretical finding related to the origin of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) (see this). The Youtube video tells about the article of Gjergo and Kroup (see this) raising the question that the so called early-type galaxies (ETGs) found by James Webb telescope, could give to CMB an additional contribution, which according to the most conservative estimate is 1.4 per cent and can even dominate of the ordinary contribution if present. This could mean a revolution in cosmology and is therefore extremely interesting from the TGD point of view.

Consider first some background.

1. Consider first the standard model for the origin of CMB. The standard cosmology assumes plasma phase. In the very early stages quarks and gluons were free. The nucleosynthesis took place and eventually the formation of atoms became possible as the temperature of plasma consisting mostly of hydrogen was low enough.

Thermal radiation decoupled from thermal equilibrium and the universe became opaque. The radiation temperature started to decrease like 1/a, a is the scale factor of the Universe, which in TGD is identifiable as light-cone proper time for causal diamond (CD). The age of the Universe neutralization was about t∼ .379 My. Later a reheating occured and ionized the atoms and the Universe became transparent. This was due to the formation of stars which generated radiation and the solar wind.

Some numbers are in order. The recent age of the universe is about t= 1.4× 10⁴ My. The temperature in the decoupling was 3000 K so that a₀/a(t)= (3/2.75)× 10³∼ 10³. t₀/t ∼ 1.4/.379 × 10⁴.

Very massive early-type galaxies (ETG) were studied theoretically by using the data provided by James Webb telescope. a₀/a(t(ETG))= 1+z, z was in the range. They produced dust and radiation in thermal equilibrium with it. When the age of the Universe was was roughly t(ETG)∼ 500 My (considerably longer than t= 1.4× 10⁴ My) the radiation ecoupled from the thermal equilibrium and gave an additional contribution to CMB. The lower bound for the contribution is 1.4 per cent but it could be even of order one and could even dominate.

LambdaCDM view of dark is assumed in the theoretical considerations of the article (see this) so one must be cautious with comparison with the TGD view. The vision is that rapid star formation generated dust and radiation, which was thermalized. Decoupling from matter occurred and the analog of CMB was generated.

This finding does not challenge the Big Bang but can challenge the narrative about how stars and galaxies emerged. This finding could in fact change the entire cosmology of the time before these very rapidly forming galaxies appeared.

This together with the TGD view of cosmic evolution (see this), forces to challenge the narrative about the cosmic evolution before the nucleosynthesis and even after that the plasma, formed from hydrogen atoms and light nuclei need not have been present in considerable amounts. The assumption that the gravitational condensation of hydrogen and other atoms give rise to the formation of stars and galaxies, might be wrong.

Was there any plasma phase? Was there any primordial nucleosynthesis? Was there any CMB in the standard sense? Was there any gravitational condensation of the ordinary matter to form stars? TGD indeed suggests a completely different cosmology and astrophysics before the formation of these strange galaxies (see this, this, this, this, this, and this).

1. In the TGD framework, the decay of cosmic strings by forming tangles and thickening would produce ordinary particles as liberated energy giving rise to stars and galaxies. The long cosmic strings would thicken and produce ordinary matter in a way similar to the decay of the vacuum expectations of inflationary fields to ordinary matter. Galaxies and even stars need not form as ordinary matter undergoes gravitational condensation.

This mechanism together with the zero energy ontology (ZEO) allowing time reversal in ordinary state function reductions, could explain the rapid formation of early-type galaxies. The decay of the cosmic strings could have produced ordinary matter and also stars and galaxies. An elegant explanation for the galactic dark matter and predictions for the flat velocity spectrum of distant stars around galaxies emerges. It is not clear whether the primordial plasma, formed from hydrogen atoms and light nuclei, has been present in considerable amounts.

Dirac equation for H=M⁴× CP₂, assuming that M⁴ has K”ahler structure predicts, that colored states, in particular quarks and gluons cannot exist as light particles. Only hadrons and leptons are possible and also their heavier counterparts (see this).

This distinguishes dramatically between the standard model and TGD. The infinite hierarchy of color partial waves of quarks and leptons gives rise to corresponding hierarchies of massless hadrons and leptons, which generate thermal mass squared by p-adic thermodynamics. There would be no “desert” predicted by GUTs. Quark gluon plasma has not been present in the early Universe. Instead, cosmic strings would have dominated and colored states would have been present only at temperatures was very near to Hagedorn temperature of order CP₂ mass assignable to cosmic strings, 4-D objects with 2-D string world sheet as M⁴ projection, which dominated the mass density. Einsteinian space-time with 4-D M⁴ projection did not yet exist and was generated in the transition to radiation dominated phase.

p-Adically scaled versions of hadron physics are predicted. They correspond to light colorless hadrons formed from fermion modes corresponding to different color partial waves (see this and this). This could completely revolutionize the nuclear physics of the Sun (see this).This could also revolutionize the physics of the early Universe, at least before the stabilization of atoms, because quarks and glums would not exist except at temperatures of order CP₂ mass scale, which is of order 10^-4 Planck masses. This could revolutionize cosmology even after that if the plasma, consisting of protons and light nuclei, is actually created as galaxies and stars were born as tangles of cosmic strings.

The decay of cosmic strings to ordinary matter by a step-wise p-adic cooling from Hagedorn temperature determined by CP₂ mass scale (see this and this). Last year, I wrote an article considering the possibility that the nuclear physics of the Sun could differ dramatically from the standard view. At the solar surface, the M₈₉ hadrons with a mass scale, which is 512 the mass scale of ordinary hadrons, associated with monopole flux tubes connecting Sun to the galactic nucleus would decay into ordinary hadrons and produce solar radiation and the solar wind. The interior of the Sun would be something completely different from what has been assumed, being analogous to the cell nucleus.

This decay, occurring by p-adic cooling (see this), could produce a plasma consisting of hydrogen atoms and light atoms as galaxies and stars were formed. This plasma would be created much later than has been assumed and would not be primordial! Weinberg’s classic “The first 3 minutes” would become a historical curiosity! For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.

Source: https://matpitka.blogspot.com/2025/06/have-we-misidentified-origin-of-cmb-and.html