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Equation 1 · Part 3 · From Origins to Frontier: A History of Precision Cosmology

Symbol D_A

θ∗=r∗DA(z∗)\theta_* = \frac{r_*}{D_A(z_*)}
DAD_A

What this part means

the angular diameter distance to that same epoch.

Its job in the formula

DAD_A occurs below the fraction bar. The quantity above the bar is divided by this expression; zero is excluded as a denominator.

Where the article explains it

where r∗r_* is the physical size of the sound horizon at recombination — how far a pressure wave in the primordial plasma could travel before the plasma became neutral and transparent — and DA(z∗)D_A(z_*) is the angular diameter distance to that same epoch.

The passage around this formula

…on it: θ∗=r∗DA(z∗)\theta_* = \frac{r_*}{D_A(z_*)}. where r∗r_* is the physical size of the sound horizon at recombination — how far a pressure wave in the primordial plasma could travel before the plasma became neutral and transparent — and DA(z∗)D_A(z_*) is the angular diameter distance to that same epoch. Planck measures θ∗\theta_* directly from the angular spacing of peaks in the CMB power spectrum to extraordinary precision; converting that angle into a present-day expansion rate H0H_0 requires assuming a cosmological model (matter content,…

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Learn the underlying idea

A subscript is a label attached below a symbol. It often selects a time step, component, category, or member of a sequence.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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