Related papers: Understanding BBN: the physics and its history
The early universe provides a unique laboratory for probing the frontiers of particle physics in general and neutrino physics in particular. The primordial abundances of the relic nuclei produced during the first few minutes of the…
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) explores the first few minutes of nuclei formation after the Big Bang. We present updates that result in new constraints at the 2{\sigma} level for the abundances of the four primary light nuclides -…
Cosmology requires new physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles and fields. What is the fundamental physics behind dark matter and dark energy? What generated the initial fluctuations in the early Universe? Polarised light…
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which permeates the entire Universe, is the radiation left over from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang. On very large scales, the CMB radiation field is smooth and isotropic, but the existence of…
Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) theory predicts the abundances of the light elements D, $^3$He, $^4$He and $^7$Li produced in the early universe. The primordial abundances of D and $^4$He inferred from observational data are in good…
Big-bang nucleosynthesis is one of the cornerstones of the standard cosmology. For almost thirty years its predictions have been used to test the big-bang model to within a fraction of a second of the bang. The concordance that exists…
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) provides a precious window on fundamental physics at very high energy scales, possibly including quantum gravity, GUTs and supersymmetry. The CMB has already enabled defect-based rivals to inflation to…
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) offers one of the most strict evidences for the Lambda-CDM cosmology at present, as well as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. In this work, our main aim is to present the outcomes of our…
The Universe is the grandest conceivable scale on which the human mind can strive to understand nature. The amazing aspect of cosmology, the branch of science that attempts to understand the origin and evolution of the Universe, is that it…
This essay is a nontechnical primer for a broader audience, in which I paint a broad-brush picture of modern cosmology. I begin by reviewing the evidence for the big bang, including the expansion of our Universe, the cosmic microwave…
This paper presents a necessarily incomplete review of the evolution of cosmology since the first Astro/Cosmo Moriond meeting in 1981. I trace the journey from the classical Big Bang model based on three pillars -- universe expansion,…
A brief review of standard big bang nucleosynthesis theory and the related observations of the light element isotopes is presented. Implications of BBN on chemical evolution and constraints on particle properties will also be discussed.
The primordial abundances of deuterium, helium-3, helium-4, and lithium-7 probe the baryon density of the Universe only a few minutes after the Big Bang. Of these relics from the early Universe, deuterium is the baryometer of choice. After…
The BBN predictions for the abundances of the light element isotopes is reviewed and compared with recent observational data. The single unknown parameter of standard BBN is the baryon-to-photon ratio, \eta, and can be determined by the…
This is a transcript of the joint talk we gave at the Sixth Gruber Cosmology Conference at Yale University on 3 October 2025. We describe the key role played by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) in today's `Precision Cosmology', focusing in…
Recently it is reported that there is the discrepancy between big bang nucleosynthesis theory and observations (BBN crisis). We show that BBN predictions agree with the primordial abundances of light elements, He4, D, He3 and Li7 inferred…
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…
During its hot, dense, early evolution the Universe was a primordial nuclear reactor, synthesizing the light nuclides D, 3He, 4He and 7Li in the first thousand seconds. The presently observed abundances of these relic nuclides provide a…
The concordance of standard big bang nucleosynthesis theory and the related observations of the light element isotopes (including some new higher \he4 abundances) will be reviewed. Implications of BBN on chemical evolution, dark matter and…
The primordial abundances of the light nuclides produced by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) during the first 20 minutes in the evolution of the Universe are sensitive to the universal density of baryons and to the expansion rate of the early…