Average Thermal Evolution of the Universe

Abstract

We sketch the average behaviour of the temperatures and densities of the main components of the $\Lambda$CDM universe after inflation. It is modelled as a perfect fluid with dark energy associated with the macroscopic effect of conformal variations of the metric. The main events of the thermal evolution are studied, such as the effect of particle annihilations and decoupling, and the transitions between the eras dominated by different entities. Estimates of the average present epoch temperature of baryonic matter and dark matter composed of neutralinos are given. We study the eventual presence of a sterile neutrino component and find that the sterile neutrino density at the epoch of primordial nucleosynthesis is in agreement with expectations when their evolution starts, at the end of inflation, in temperature equilibrium with the rest of the universe.