Related papers: Primordial Nucleosynthesis and Dark Matter
This article gives a brief qualitative description of the possible evolution of the early Universe between the end of an inflationary epoch and the end of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. After a general introduction, establishing the minimum…
The primordial abundance of $^4$He plays a central role in big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The LBT $Y_{\rm p}$ Project's new measurement of the primordial $^4$He mass fraction $Y_{\rm p} =0.2458…
Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) represents one of the earliest phenomena that can lead to observational constraints on the early Universe properties. It is well-known that many important mechanisms and phase transitions occurred before BBN.…
Within the first 20 minutes of the evolution of the hot, dense, early Universe, astrophysically interesting abundances of deuterium, helium-3, helium-4, and lithium-7 were synthesized by the cosmic nuclear reactor. The primordial abundances…
The current status of big bang nucleosynthesis is reviewed. Particular attention is given to the degree at which the theory is consistent with the observation of the light element abundances.
We compute the big bang nucleosynthesis limit on the number of light neutrino degrees of freedom in a model-independent likelihood analysis based on the abundances of He4 and Li7. We use the two-dimensional likelihood functions to…
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 determined abundances of primordial $^4He$ and $^7Li$ provide a basis with which to test the standard model of big bang nucleosynthesis in conjunction with the other two light element isotopes $D$ and $^3He$, also produced in the big…
The synthesis of nuclei in diverse cosmic scenarios is reviewed, with a summary of the basic concepts involved before a discussion of the current status in each case is made. We review the physics of the early universe, the proton to…
We present a model for big bang nucleosynthesis which combines baryon inhomogeneities with the effects of the decays of massive particles (masses higher than a few GeV). Those particles, with half-lives longer than the standard…
We derive constraints from standard (with $N_\nu = 3$) BBN arising solely from two cosmologically produced nuclides, \he4 and \li7, from which the extrapolation to primordial abundances is straightforward. The abundances of D and \he3 are…
Two dimensional concordance plots involving the baryon-to-photon ratio, $\eta$, and an effective number of light neutrinos, $N_{\nu}$, are used to discuss the overall consistency of standard big-bang nucleosynthesis in light of recent…
Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) theory, together with the precise WMAP cosmic baryon density, makes tight predictions for the abundances of the lightest elements. Deuterium and 4He measurements agree well with expectations, but 7Li…
We take a fresh look at the limits on the number of neutrino flavors derived from big bang nucleosynthesis. In particular, recent measurements of the \he4 abundance enable one to estimate the primordial \he4 mass fraction at $Y_p = 0.232…
It is proposed that when the era of the big-bang nucleosynthesis ended, almost all of the 75 percent of the observed total baryonic matter remained in the form of hydrogen and continued to exist in the form of protons and electrons. They…
We perform calculations of dark photon production and decay in the early universe for ranges of dark photon masses and vacuum coupling with standard model photons. Simultaneously and self-consistently with dark photon production and decay,…
We study the effects of dark-matter annihilation during the epoch of big-bang nucleosynthesis on the primordial abundances of light elements. We improve the calculation of the light-element abundances by taking into account the effects of…
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…
We evaluate abundance anomalies generated in patches of the universe where the baryon-to-photon ratio was locally enhanced by possibly many orders of magnitude in the range $\eta = 10^{-10} - 10^{-1}$. Our study is motivated by the possible…
This article presents an original code for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis in a baryon inhomogeneous model of the universe. In this code neutron diffusion between high and low baryon density regions is calculated simultaneously with the nuclear…