The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature variations were first measured by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, revealing fluctuations of 1 part in 100,000. Robert Dicke, a key figure in this discovery, predicted the existence of the CMB while developing radar receivers in the 1940s and 1960s. His group at Princeton confirmed the detection of CMB radiation using a Dicke radiometer, following the accidental discovery by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell Labs. The theoretical groundwork laid by Dicke and others transitioned early universe theories from speculation to established physics, with significant contributions from Steven Weinberg and George Gamow.
PREREQUISITESAstronomers, cosmologists, and physics students interested in the historical development and theoretical foundations of cosmic microwave background research.
In the early 1960s, work on Brans–Dicke theory led Dicke to think about the early Universe, and with Jim Peebles he re-derived the prediction of a cosmic microwave background (having allegedly forgotten the earlier prediction of George Gamow and co-workers). Dicke, with David Todd Wilkinson and Peter G. Roll, immediately began building a Dicke radiometer to search for the radiation.
They were preceded by the accidental detection made by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson (also using a Dicke radiometer), who were working at Bell Labs near Princeton.[11][12] Nevertheless, Dicke's group made the second clean detection, and their theoretical interpretation of Penzias and Wilson's results showed that theories of the early universe had moved from pure speculation into well-tested physics.[13][14]
No, I did find revisions to his cosmology primer "First Three Minutes" that include CMBr (rev 3) and significance of anisotropies (rev 6 ), not a peer reviewed pub but in the OP period of interest.windy miller said:Let me know if you find it thanks.