The Silk Scale and The Silk Mass
Diffusion damping exponentially decreases anisotropies in the CMB on a scale (the Silk scale) much smaller than a degree, or smaller than approximately 3 megaparsecs. This angular scale corresponds to a multipole moment . The mass contained within the Silk scale is the silk mass. Numerical evaluations of the Silk mass yield results on the order of solar masses at recombination and on the order of the mass of a present-day galaxy or galaxy cluster in the current era.
As diffusion damping works at this level, scientists say it affects small angles and corresponding anisotropies. This is to be contrasted with other effects which operate on a scale called intermediate or large . Searches for anisotropies on a small scale are not as difficult as those on larger scales, partly because they may employ ground-based telescopes and their results can be more easily predicted by current theoretical models.
Read more about this topic: Diffusion Damping, Effects
Famous quotes containing the words silk, scale and/or mass:
“All-destroying sword-blade still
Carried by the wandering fool.
Gold-sewn silk on the sword-blade,
Beauty and fool together laid.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“... the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“A serious problem in America is the gap between academe and the mass media, which is our culture. Professors of humanities, with all their leftist fantasies, have little direct knowledge of American life and no impact whatever on public policy.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)