Robert Herman

Robert Herman (1914–1997) was an American physicist who, with Ralph Alpher, predicted that the expanding universe should contain remnant thermal radiation now observed as the cosmic microwave background.

Ralph Alpher: Ralph Alpher was an American physicist who developed early calculations of nucleosynthesis and the predicted relic radiation of the Big Bang. Herman’s collaborator, Alpher shared the 1948 prediction of a hot early universe’s leftover radiation.
Cosmic microwave background: The cosmic microwave background is relic electromagnetic radiation from the early universe, observed today as an almost uniform microwave glow. It is the radiation whose present temperature Herman and Alpher estimated.
Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper: The 1948 Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper described the formation of chemical elements in an expanding universe. Herman and Alpher’s relic-radiation estimate appeared in a related 1948 publication.
Cosmic microwave background discovery: The cosmic microwave background discovery was the 1965 identification of persistent microwave noise as radiation from the early universe. The discovery confirmed the kind of background radiation Herman had anticipated.
George Gamow: George Gamow was a physicist who advanced the hot Big Bang model and early accounts of the origin of chemical elements. Gamow supervised and promoted the work by Alpher and Herman on the early universe.
Cosmic expansion: Cosmic expansion is the increase over time of distances between unbound regions of the universe. Expansion stretches the relic radiation’s wavelengths and lowers its temperature.
Physical Review: Physical Review is a peer-reviewed physics journal published by the American Physical Society. The early papers outlining the radiation prediction were published in Physical Review.
Nobel Prize in Physics 1978: The 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson for discovering the cosmic microwave background. The prize recognized the observational discovery that vindicated the prediction, though not its earlier theorists.
Arno Penzias: Arno Penzias was an American radio astronomer who co-discovered the cosmic microwave background in 1965. His observation established the reality of the relic radiation Herman and Alpher had predicted.
Black-body radiation: Black-body radiation is electromagnetic radiation with a spectrum determined by the temperature of an ideal absorbing and emitting body. Herman’s estimate treated the early universe’s radiation as a thermal black-body spectrum.

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