Related papers: Understanding BBN: the physics and its history

From the observations of the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, the WMAP satellite has provided a determination of the baryonic density of the Universe, \Omega_b.h^2, with an unprecedented precision. This…

The key Standard-Physics inputs of the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) are the light nuclei reaction rates. Both the network and the nuclear rates have been recently reanalyzed and updated, and cosmological and New-Physics constraints…

Interest in non-standard recombination scenarios has been spurred by recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) results from BOOMERANG and MAXIMA, which show an unexpectedly low second acoustic peak, resulting in a best-fit baryon density…

The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) is the radiation left over from the hot Big Bang. Its blackbody spectrum and small anisotropy provide clues about the origin and early evolution of the Universe. In particular, the spectrum…

We present a model-independent reconstruction of the early expansion and thermal histories of the universe, obtained from light element abundance measurements. The expansion history is tightly constrained around the onset of the Big Bang…

Age consistency for the Universe today has been an important cosmological test. Even more powerful consistency tests at times as early as 10^{-32} sec lie ahead in the precision era of cosmology. I outline tests based upon cosmic microwave…

The first part of this paper contains a brief description of the beginnings of modern cosmology, which, the author will argue, was most likely born in the Year 1912. Some of the pieces of evidence presented here have emerged from recent…

We intend to show how fundamental science is drawn from the patterns in the temperature and polarization fields of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, and thus to motivate the field of CMB research. We discuss the field's…

A review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is presented. Observations of deuterium and helium-4 are discussed. Some BBN restrictions on non-standard physics, especially on neutrino properties and time-variation of fundamental constants are…

Current observational data favor cosmological models which differ from the standard model due to the presence of some form of dark energy and, perhaps, by additional contributions to the more familiar dark matter. Primordial nucleosynthesis…

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis represents perhaps the first, and still perhaps the most powerful particle-astrophysics connection. As such, it should provide an example for other work in this area. I discuss the current status of standard model…

The Hot Big Bang is often considered as the origin of all matter and radiation in the Universe. Primordial nucleosynthesis (BBN) provides strong evidence that the early Universe contained a hot plasma of photons and baryons with a…

We provide a fresh look at the cosmological constraints on axion-like particles (ALPs) that couple predominantly to photons, focusing on lifetimes $\tau_{a} \lesssim 10^{4}\, {\rm s}$ and masses $m_a\lesssim 10\,{\rm GeV}$. We consider Big…

Within the standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) framework, the baryon density measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) or the primordial D abundance is much higher than the one…

We present cosmological constraints on deviations of Newton's constant at large scales, analyzing latest cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and primordial abundances of light elements synthesized by big bang nucleosynthesis…

Following the pioneering observations with COBE in the early 1990s, studies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have focused on temperature and polarization anisotropies. CMB spectral distortions - tiny departures of the CMB energy…

We investigate the effect on the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) from the presence of a stochastic primordial magnetic field (PMF) whose strength is spatially inhomogeneous. We assume a uniform total energy density and a gaussian…

The conventional Big Bang model successfully anticipates the initial abundances of 2H(D), 3He, and 4He, aligning remarkably well with observational data. However, a persistent challenge arises in the case of 7Li, where the predicted…

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations suggest the possibility of an extra dark radiation component, while the current evidence from big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is more ambiguous. Dark radiation from a decaying particle can…

We improve Standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (SBBN) calculations taking into account new nuclear physics analyses (Descouvemont et al. 2003). Using a Monte-Carlo technique, we calculate the abundances of light nuclei versus the baryon to…