I won't quote all of it, but that was a great, detailed explanation, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
In theory we could answer the "could have" question with answers like the one you've given, even if we can't answer the "would have" question.
Lots of respectable physicists came up with serious alternatives to those simplest hypotheses, though, didn't they? As I understand it, a feature of steady-state theories is that they proposed expansion without a high-temperature past. Maybe one of the ways to put a stake into the hearts of...
Good point. That's why I'm asking questions rather than going with any of my own conclusions. :-)
Fair enough. Here they are:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6633/aa94d5/meta
https://academic.oup.com/ptep/article/2014/6/06B101/1561631
Fair point again. So let's say that...
The CMB is great confirmation for the theory. I think what I might ultimately be looking for is whether the CMB could have motivated the theory.
Imagine an alternate history where optical telescopes stayed stuck with 1620s technology but radio telescopes advanced rapidly. Instead of a...
To put my question a different way: Let's say we had a theory that the CMB was generated by some other process that occurs at, say, 500K instead of 3000K. Would the data from COBE and Planck by itself force us to throw out that theory and develop a 3000K theory? And, if so, what about the COBE...
Hi.
Could the original temperature of the cosmic microwave background be deduced without a theory of a cooling universe? I.e. if we didn't know that the universe started hotter than 3000K and cooled to below 3000K, would we be able to look at the CMB and say, "Yep, that was definitely...