3 research outputs found
Antimatter Regions in the Early Universe and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
We have studied big bang nucleosynthesis in the presence of regions of
antimatter. Depending on the distance scale of the antimatter region, and thus
the epoch of their annihilation, the amount of antimatter in the early universe
is constrained by the observed abundances. Small regions, which annihilate
after weak freezeout but before nucleosynthesis, lead to a reduction in the 4He
yield, because of neutron annihilation. Large regions, which annihilate after
nucleosynthesis, lead to an increased 3He yield. Deuterium production is also
affected but not as much. The three most important production mechanisms of 3He
are 1) photodisintegration of 4He by the annihilation radiation, 2) pbar-4He
annihilation, and 3) nbar-4He annihilation by "secondary" antineutrons produced
in anti-4He annihilation. Although pbar-4He annihilation produces more 3He than
the secondary nbar-4He annihilation, the products of the latter survive later
annihilation much better, since they are distributed further away from the
annihilation zone.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Minor changes to match the PRD versio