English

Electron-positron plasma in BBN: damped-dynamic screening

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2023-08-31 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Nuclear Theory Plasma Physics

Abstract

We characterize in detail the very dense ee+γe^- e^+ \gamma plasma present during the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and explore how it is perturbed electromagnetically by \lq\lq impurities, {\it i.e.\/}, spatially dispersed protons and light nuclei undergoing thermal motion. The internuclear electromagnetic screened potential is obtained (analytically) using the linear response approach, allowing for the dynamic motion of the electromagnetic field sources and the damping effects due to plasma component scattering. We discuss the limits of the linear response method and suggest additional work needed to improve BBN reaction rates in the primordial Universe. Our theoretical methods to describe the potential between charged dust particles align with previous studies on planetary and space dusty plasma and could have significant impact on interpretation of standard cosmological model results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2307.11264,
  title  = {Electron-positron plasma in BBN: damped-dynamic screening},
  author = {Christopher Grayson and Cheng Tao Yang and Martin Formanek and Johann Rafelski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.11264},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

28 pages and 6 figures, version conforms with in press Annals of Physics

R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:36:32.387Z