Related papers: Addendum: Refined bounds on MeV-scale thermal dark…
We consider the effect on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) of new measurements of the $d(p,\gamma){}^3$He cross section by the LUNA Collaboration. These have an important effect on the primordial abundance of D/H which is also sensitive to…
New light states thermally coupled to the Standard Model plasma alter the expansion history of the Universe and impact the synthesis of the primordial light elements. In this work, we carry out an exhaustive and precise analysis of the…
Thermal dark matter at the MeV scale faces stringent bounds from a variety of cosmological probes. Here we perform a detailed evaluation of BBN bounds on the annihilation cross section of dark matter with a mass $1\,\text{MeV} \lesssim…
We present constraints on the number of relativistic species from a joint analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations and light element abundances (helium and deuterium) compared to big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) predictions.…
In the light of the recent WMAP results we update the constraints on a class of non standard BBN models with a simultaneous combination of non standard neutrino distributions and extra effective number of neutrinos in the expansion rate.…
Dark sectors provide a compelling theoretical framework for thermally producing sub-GeV dark matter, and motivate an expansive new accelerator and direct-detection experimental program. We demonstrate the power of constraining such dark…
We study constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis on inert particles in a dark sector which contribute to the Hubble rate and therefore change the predictions of the primordial nuclear abundances. We pay special attention to the case of…
Recent measurements of the D(p,$\gamma)^3$He, nuclear reaction cross-section and of the neutron lifetime, along with the reevaluation of the cosmological baryon abundance from cosmic microwave background (CMB) analysis, call for an update…
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…
A dark radiation term arises as a correction to the energy momentum tensor in the simplest five-dimensional RS-II brane-world cosmology. In this paper we revisit the constraints on dark radiation based upon the newest results for…
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) relates key cosmological parameters to the primordial abundance of light elements. In this paper, we point out that the recent observations of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies by the Planck satellite…
Recent work on increasing the effective number of neutrino species (Neff) in the early universe has focussed on introducing extra relativistic species (`dark radiation'). We draw attention to another possibility: a new particle of mass less…
We present new Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) limits on the cosmic expansion rate or relativistic energy density, quantified via the number $N_\nu$ of equivalent neutrino species. We use the latest light element observations, neutron mean…
Recent Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) measurements have determined the baryon density of the Universe $\Omega_b$ with a precision of about 4%. With $\Omega_b$ tightly constrained, comparisons of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN)…
Primordial or big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three historical strong evidences for the big bang model. Standard BBN is now a parameter free theory, since the baryonic density of the Universe has been deduced with an…
After neutrinos decouple from the photon bath, they can populate a thermal dark sector. If this occurs at a temperature above ~100 keV, this can have measurable impacts on light element abundances. We calculate light element abundances in…
By using most of the present CMB and LSS measurements and the BBN constraints on the primordial helium abundance, Y_p, we set bounds on the radiation content of the Universe and neutrino properties. We consider lepton asymmetric…
Combining cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from Planck satellite data, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) measurements and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data, we obtain the bounds on total neutrino masses $M_\nu$ with the approximation…
We include correlations between elemental abundances in a Monte Carlo statistical analysis of BBN predictions, which, along with updated reaction rates and an improved BBN code, lead to tightened constraints on $\Omega_{B}$ and $N_{\nu}$.…
We use the framework of dark matter effective field theories to study the complementarity of bounds for a dark matter particle with mass in the MeV range. Taking properly into account the mixing between operators induced by the…