Related papers: Probing Unification Scenarios with Big Bang Nucleo…
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…
We review the Cosmology and Physics underlying Primordial Nucleosynthesis and survey current observational data in order to compare the predictions of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with the inferred primordial abundances. From this comparison we…
For a brief time in its early evolution the Universe was a cosmic nuclear reactor. The expansion and cooling of the Universe limited this epoch to the first few minutes, allowing time for the synthesis in astrophysically interesting…
The high densities in the early Universe provide a unique laboratory to constrain couplings between feebly interacting particles, such as dark matter and neutrinos. In this article, we study how Big Bang Nucleosynthesis can constrain models…
Standard big bang nucleosynthesis (SBBN) has been remarkably successful, and it may well be the correct and sufficient account of what happened. However, interest in variations from the standard picture come from two sources: First, big…
Scalar dark matter can interact with Standard Model (SM) particles, altering the fundamental constants of Nature in the process. Changes in the fundamental constants during and prior to Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) produce changes in the…
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…
We show that Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) significantly constrains axion-like dark matter. The axion acts like an oscillating QCD $\theta$ angle that redshifts in the early universe, increasing the neutron-proton mass difference at…
Primordial or big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is now a parameter free theory whose predictions are in good overall agreement with observations. However, the 7Li calculated abundance is significantly higher than the one deduced from…
We reexamine big bang nucleosynthesis with large-scale baryon density inhomogeneities when the length scale of the density fluctuations exceeds the neutron diffusion length ($\sim 10^7-10^8$ cm at BBN), and the amplitude of the fluctuations…
We use big bang nucleosynthesis bounds on the variation of the gravitational coupling to derive constraints on the strength of the deviation from the gravitational inverse-square law due to tensor and vector unparticle exchange.
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…
We perform the first quantitative study of the sensitivity of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to variations in isospin breaking with precise input from lattice QCD calculations. The predicted light nuclear abundances are most sensitive to the…
We investigate BBN in scalar-tensor theories of gravity with arbitrary matter couplings and self-interaction potentials. We first consider the case of a massless dilaton with a quadratic coupling to matter. We perform a full numerical…
We determine the influence of a variation of the fundamental ``constants'' on the predicted helium abundance in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. The analytic estimate is performed in two parts: the first step determines the dependence of the…
We examine Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) in the case of inhomogenous neutrino degeneracy, in the limit where the fluctuations are sufficiently small on large length scales that the present-day element abundances are homogeneous. We…
We study the dependence of the primordial nuclear abundances as a function of the electromagnetic fine-structure constant $\alpha$, keeping all other fundamental constants fixed. We update the leading nuclear reaction rates, in particular…
As the early universe expands and cools the rates of the weak interactions that keep neutrinos in thermal equilibrium with the matter and the related rates of the reactions that inter-convert neutrons and protons decrease. Eventually, these…
Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) probes the cosmic mass-energy density at temperatures $\sim 10$ MeV to $\sim 100$ keV. Here, we consider the effect of a cosmic matter-like species that is non-relativistic and pressureless during BBN. Such a…
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies independently predict the universal baryon density. Comparing their predictions will provide a fundamental test on cosmology. Using BBN and the CMB…