View source for Cosmon

{{Short description|Hypothetical form of matter}}
{{Infobox particle|image_size=200px|image=Image:Visual_illustration_of_idea_of_cosmonium.png|theorized=1946}} 
In [[physical cosmology]], a '''cosmon''' or '''cosmonium''' is a hypothetical form of matter. The idea was originally proposed by [[Georges Lemaître]], who suggested the concept of a 'primeval atom’ (''L'Hypothèse de l'Atome Primitif'') 1946, leading up to the theory of the [[Big Bang]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lemaître |first=Georges |date=1946 |title=L'Hypothèse de l'Atome Primitif |trans-title=Hypothesis of the Primal Atom 
|language=fr |publisher=Neuchâtel, Éditions du griffon |oclc=9863653 }}</ref> He illustrated the idea by imagining an object 30 times larger than the volume of the sun containing all the matter of the [[Universe]]. Its density would be around <math>10^{15}\text{g cm}^{-3}</math>.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kragh |first=Helge |editor-first1=Holder |editor-last1=D. Rodney |editor-first2=Mitton |editor-last2=Simon |date=2012-10-04 |chapter=‘The Wildest Speculation of All’: Lemaître and the Primeval-Atom Universe |title=Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy |publisher=Springer |location=Berlin Heidelberg |series=Astrophysics and Space Science Library |volume=395 |pages=29–38 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-32254-9_3 | issn=0067-0057 | isbn=978-3-642-32254-9 }}</ref> In his view, this occurred somewhere between 20 and 60 billion years ago.<ref name="enc">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Georges Édouard Lemaître |encyclopedia=Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia |year=2009 |publisher=Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]|location=Redmond, WA }}</ref>

The idea of a primeval “super-atom” lived on and was developed forward by [[Maurice Goldhaber]] in 1956. In his proposal there would have been a point, which had been called a universon, that would have collapsed into a cosmon and an anti-cosmon pair. Goldhaber was questioned why is there any matter if equal amounts of matter and [[antimatter]] were formed in the Big Bang. One explanation for this is the [[Baryogenesis|asymmetry of matter]] meaning that there could have been slightly more matter than antimatter, for instance 1001 matter particles to every 1000 antimatter. In Goldhaber's model, cosmon and anticosmon would have flown apart and therefore explaining issue without asymmetry.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Goldhaber | first=Maurice | date=1956-08-03| title=Speculations on Cosmogony | journal =Science | volume=124 | issue=3214 | pages=218–219 | bibcode= 1956Sci...124..218G| doi=10.1126/science.124.3214.218| issn=0036-8075| pmid=17838075}}</ref>

In 1989, [[Hans Dehmelt]] attempted to modernize the idea of the primeval atom. In this hypothesis, The cosmonium would have been the heaviest form of matter at the beginning of the Big Bang.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Dehmelt| first=Hans | date=1990-07-01| title=Experiments with an isolated subatomic particle at rest | journal =Reviews of Modern Physics | volume=62 | issue=3| pages=218–219 | bibcode = 1990RvMP...62..525D| doi =10.1103/RevModPhys.62.525 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| last=Dehmelt| first=Hans | date=1989-11-01
| title=Triton,... electron,... cosmon,...: An infinite regression?| journal =Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
| volume=86 | issue=22| pages=8618–8619 | bibcode = 1989PNAS...86.8618D| doi = 10.1073/pnas.86.22.8618| pmid=16594084 | pmc=363482| doi-access=free }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

[[Category:Physical cosmology]]
[[Category:Hypothetical elementary particles]]