Integral representation of the cosmic microwave background spectrum

Abstract

We use an integral representation for nonthermal radiation, which is bounded from below and above, to describe the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The upper bound is given by the Rayleigh-Jeans law with a temperature $T_{RJ}$ that can be determined by the absorption signal of 21 cm photons, where $T_{RJ}$ represents the equilibrium temperature of photons in the RJ tail. If $T_{RJ}>T_{CMB}$, then the lower bound allows us to conclude that photons, additional to the remnant of the Big Bang, are needed to explain the present CMB. These constraints are additional to other cosmological or astrophysical constraints in the study of the distortions of the CMB brought about by new physics particles or fields.