Related papers: Metastable GeV-scale particles as a solution to th…
We investigate the cosmological impact of hypothetical unstable new physics particles that decay in the MeV-scale plasma of the Early Universe. Focusing on scenarios where the decays produce metastable species such as muons, pions, and…
Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) theory, together with the precise WMAP cosmic baryon density, makes tight predictions for the abundances of the lightest elements. Deuterium and 4He measurements agree well with expectations, but 7Li…
We consider the effects of metastable charged sparticles on Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), including bound-state reaction rates and chemical effects. We make a new analysis of the bound states of negatively-charged massive particles with…
Meta-stable dark sector particles decaying into electrons or photons may non-trivially change the Hubble rate, lead to entropy injection into the thermal bath of Standard Model particles and may also photodisintegrate light nuclei formed in…
The $^7$Li abundance calculated in BBN with the baryon-to-photon ratio fixed from fits to the CMB power spectrum is inconsistent with the observed lithium abundances on the surface of metal-poor halo stars. Previous cosmological solutions…
The discrepancy on Li^7 and Li^6 abundances between the observational data and the standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis theory prediction has been a nagging problem in astrophysics and cosmology, given the highly attractive and succesful Big…
The possibility that the so-called "lithium problem", i.e. the disagreement between the theoretical abundance predicted for primordial $^7$Li assuming standard nucleosynthesis and the value inferred from astrophysical measurements, can be…
The abundance of primordial lithium is derived from the observed spectroscopy of metal-poor stars in the galactic halo. However, the observationally inferred abundance remains at about a factor of three below the abundance predicted by…
We reconsider the effects of unstable particles on the production and destruction of the primordial light elements, with a view to reconciling the high primordial Li7 abundance deduced from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), as implied by the…
We explore a nuclear physics resolution to the discrepancy between the predicted standard big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) abundance of 7Li and its observational determination in metal-poor stars. The theoretical 7Li abundance is 3-4 times…
In this work, we revise and update model-independent constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis on MeV-scale particles $\phi$ which decay into photons and/or electron-positron pairs. We use the latest determinations of primordial abundances…
We point out that the cosmological abundance of ${}^7$Li can be reduced down to observed values if during its formation Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is modified by the presence of light electrically neutral particles $X$ that have substantial…
The primordial lithium problem remains a persistent motivation for new-physics modifications of Big Bang nucleosynthesis, yet the precision of the observed deuterium abundance now places strong constraints on such attempts. This indicates…
We investigate decays of hypothetical unstable new physics particles into metastable species such as muons, pions, or kaons in the Early Universe, when temperatures are in the MeV range, and study how they affect cosmic neutrinos. We…
The cosmological lithium problem -- that theory predicts a primordial abundance far higher than the observed value -- has resisted decades of attempts by cosmologists, nuclear physicists, and astronomers alike to root out systematics. We…
We consider the effects of the injections of energetic photon and electron (or positron) on the big-bang nucleosynthesis. We study the photodissociation of light elements in the early Universe paying particular attention to the case that…
Supersymmetric extensions of the standard model of particle physics assuming the gravitino to be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), and with the next-to-LSP decaying to the gravitino during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, are analyzed.…
We studied previously the impact on light-element abundances of gravitinos decaying during or after Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). We found regions of the gravitino mass m_{3/2} and abundance zeta_{3/2} plane where its decays could…
The primordial lithium abundance inferred from observations of metal-poor stars is ~3 times smaller than the theoretical value in standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) model. We assume a simple model including a sterile neutrino nu_H with…
We study the type-I seesaw model with three right-handed neutrinos and Majorana masses below the pion mass. In this mass range, the model parameter space is not only strongly constrained by the requirement to explain the light neutrino…