Jas. Lima et al., Is the radiation temperature-redshift relation of the standard cosmology in accordance with the data?, M NOT R AST, 312(4), 2000, pp. 747-752
The radiation temperature-redshift relation for Friedmann-Robertson-Walker
geometries is rediscussed in connection with recent observational data base
d on the fine-structure splitting of atomic and singly ionized carbon lines
in quasar absorption-line systems. Indirect measurement of T(z) is one of
the most powerful cosmological tests available because it may exclude even
the presence of a cosmological constant. Unlike recent claims, we argue tha
t the temperature at high z may be smaller than the standard prediction, th
ereby opening a window to alternative (big bang) models. By including new i
ngredients like a phenomenological decaying vacuum energy density and gravi
tational 'adiabatic' photon creation as well as late inflationary models dr
iven by a scalar field, a new temperature law is deduced and its prediction
s are compared with the standard result.