Cosmic “adiabatic” photon creation: Temperature law and blackbody spectrum

The temperature-redshift relation (cosmic thermometer) is rediscussed in the framework of gravitationally induced photon production in the expanding universe. It is found that the same extended temperature law can be derived based on three independent methods, namely: (i) through a simple heuristic approach, (ii) based on macroscopic irreversible thermodynamics with photon creation, and (iii) using a kinetic relativistic Boltzmann equation incorporating gravitational photon creation. All these methods yield the same answer. The modified kinetic treatment reveals not only that the Planckian blackbody spectrum endowed with the “adiabatic” creation is preserved in the course of the expansion but also that CMB anisotropies and distortions can be treated properly. The new cosmic thermometer suggests a crucial test to the standard cosmic concordance model in the thermal sector. It is also argued that the present results may open a new route for scrutinising the H0 Supernovae-CMB tension challenging the ΛCDM model.