Related papers: The Neutron Mean Life and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) describes the production of the lightest nuclides via a dynamic interplay among the four fundamental forces during the first seconds of cosmic time. We briefly overview the essentials of this physics, and…
We show that the predicted primordial helium production is significantly reduced when new measurements of the neutron lifetime and the implied enhancement in the weak reaction rates are included in big-bang nucleosynthesis. Therefore, even…
The precise value of the mean neutron lifetime, $\tau_n$, plays an important role in nuclear and particle physics and cosmology. It is a key input for predicting the ratio of protons to helium atoms in the primordial universe and is used to…
The precise value of the neutron lifetime is of fundamental importance to particle physics and cosmology. The neutron lifetime recently obtained, 878.5 +/- 0.7stat +/- 0.3sys s, is the most accurate one to date. The new result for the…
To elucidate the significance of the effect of systematic uncertainties in light element abundance estimates on cosmological bounds derivable from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) we present tables giving bounds on $\Omega_{baryon}$ and…
One of the three testaments in favor of the big bang theory is the prediction of the primordial elemental abundances in the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). The Standard BBN is a parameter-free theory due to the precise knowledge of the…
Current precision big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) studies motivate us to revisit the neutron lifespan in the plasma medium of the early universe. The mechanism we explore is the Fermi-blocking of decay electrons and neutrinos by plasma. As…
We derive new constraints on the neutron lifetime based on the recent Planck 2015 observations of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the CMB. Under the assumption of standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, we show that Planck data…
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…
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have a long history together in the standard cosmology. The general concordance between the predicted and observed light element abundances provides a direct probe of…
We present the status of current US experimental efforts to measure the lifetime of the free neutron by the "beam" and "bottle" methods. BBN nucleosynthesis models require accurate measurements with 1 second uncertainties, which are…
The analysis of experiments on measuring neutron lifetime has been made. The latest most accurate result of measuring neutron lifetime [Phys. Lett. B 605, 72 (2005)] 878.5 \pm 0.8 s differs from the world average value [Phys. Lett. B 667, 1…
A massive long-lived tau neutrino in the MeV regime modifies the primordial light-element abundances predicted by big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) calculations. This effect has been used to derive limits on the tau neutrino mass. Because…
We estimate the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraint on the majoron in the mass range between $1\,{\rm MeV}$ to $10\,{\rm GeV}$ which dominantly decays into the standard model neutrinos. When the majoron lifetime is shorter than…
Comparing Big Bang Nucleosynthesis predictions with the light element abundances inferred from observational data, we can obtain the strong constraints on some neutrino properties, e.g. number of neutrino species, mass, lifetime. Recently…
We calculate the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis abundances for helium-4 and deuterium for a range of neutron lifetimes, $\tau_n = 840 - 1050$ s, using the state-of-the-art Python package \textsc{PRyMordial}. We show the results for two different…
Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) are strongly motivated by theory due to their capability of simultaneously explaining the observed phenomena of dark matter, neutrino oscillations and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. The existence of such…
The neutron beta-decay lifetime plays an important role both in understanding weak interactions within the framework of the Standard Model and in theoretical predictions of the primordial abundance of 4He in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In…
We establish the feasibility of measuring the neutron lifetime via an alternative, space-based class of methods, which use neutrons generated by galactic cosmic ray spallation of planets' surfaces and atmospheres. Free neutrons decay via…
According to the standard models of particle physics and cosmology, there should be a background of cosmic neutrinos in the present Universe, similar to the cosmic microwave photon background. The weakness of the weak interactions renders…