Tracking The Post-BBN Evolution Of Deuterium

The primordial abundance of deuterium produced during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) depends sensitively on the universal ratio of baryons to photons, an important cosmological parameter probed independently by the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. Observations of deuterium in high-redshift, low-metallicity QSO Absorption Line Systems (QSOALS) provide a key baryometer, determining the baryon abundance at the time of BBN to a precision of 5%. Alternatively, if the CMB-determined baryon to photon ratio is used in the BBN calculation of the primordial abundances, the BBN-predicted deuterium abundance may be compared with the primordial value inferred from the QSOALS, testing the standard cosmological model. In the post-BBN universe, as gas is cycled through stars, deuterium is only destroyed so that its abundance measured anytime, anywhere in the Universe, bounds the primordial abundance from below. Constraints on models of post-BBN Galactic chemical evolution follow from a comparison of the relic deuterium abundance with the FUSE-inferred deuterium abundances in the chemically enriched, stellar processed material of the local ISM.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Future Directions in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Conferenc

Effect of Long-lived Strongly Interacting Relic Particles on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

It has been suggested that relic long-lived strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs, or $X$ particles) existed in the early universe. We study effects of such long-lived unstable SIMPs on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) assuming that such particles existed during the BBN epoch, but then decayed long before they could be detected. The interaction strength between an $X$ particle and a nucleon is assumed to be similar to that between nucleons. We then calculate BBN in the presence of the unstable neutral charged $X^0$ particles taking into account the capture of $X^0$ particles by nuclei to form $X$-nuclei. We also study the nuclear reactions and beta decays of $X$-nuclei. We find that SIMPs form bound states with normal nuclei during a relatively early epoch of BBN. This leads to the production of heavy elements which remain attached to them. Constraints on the abundance of $X^0$ particles during BBN are derived from observationally inferred limits on the primordial light element abundances. Particle models which predict long-lived colored particles with lifetimes longer than $\sim$ 200 s are rejected based upon these constraints.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Weak Interaction Rate Coulomb Corrections in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

We have applied a fully relativistic Coulomb wave correction to the weak reactions in the full Kawano/Wagoner Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) code. We have also added the zero temperature radiative correction. We find that using this higher accuracy Coulomb correction results in good agreement with previous work, giving only a modest 0.04 percent increase in helium mass fraction over correction prescriptions applied previously in BBN calculations. We have calculated the effect of these corrections on other light element abundance yields in BBN and we have studied these yields as functions of electron neutrino lepton number. This has allowed insights into the role of the Coulomb correction in the setting of the neutron-to-proton ratio during the BBN epoch. We find that the lepton capture processes' contributions to this ratio are only second order in the Coulomb correction.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

BBN For Pedestrians

The simplest, `standard' model of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (SBBN) assumes three light neutrinos (N_nu = 3) and no significant electron neutrino asymmetry, leaving only one adjustable parameter: the baryon to photon ratio eta. The primordial abundance of any one nuclide can, therefore, be used to measure the baryon abundance and the value derived from the observationally inferred primordial abundance of deuterium closely matches that from current, non-BBN data, primarily from the WMAP survey. However, using this same estimate there is a tension between the SBBN-predicted 4He and 7Li abundances and their current, observationally inferred primordial abundances, suggesting that N_nu may differ from the standard model value of three and/or that there may be a non-zero neutral lepton asymmetry (or, that systematic errors in the abundance determinations have been underestimated or overlooked). The differences are not large and the allowed ranges of the BBN parameters permitted by the data are quite small. Within these ranges, the BBN-predicted abundances of D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li are very smooth, monotonic functions of eta, N_nu, and the lepton asymmetry. It is possible to describe the dependencies of these abundances (or powers of them) upon the three parameters by simple, linear fits which, over their ranges of applicability, are accurate to a few percent or better. The fits presented here have not been maximized for their accuracy but, for their simplicity. To identify the ranges of applicability and relative accuracies, they are compared to detailed BBN calculations; their utility is illustrated with several examples. Given the tension within BBN, these fits should prove useful in facilitating studies of the viability of proposals for non-standard physics and cosmology, prior to undertaking detailed BBN calculations.Comment: Submitted to a Focus Issue on Neutrino Physics in New Journal of Physics (www.njp.org

Neutrinos And Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

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 this neutrino background undetectable with current technology. The cosmic neutrino background can, however, be probed indirectly through its cosmological effects on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. In this BBN review, focused on neutrinos and, more generally on dark radiation, the BBN constraints on the number of "equivalent neutrinos" (dark radiation), on the baryon asymmetry (baryon density), and on a possible lepton asymmetry (neutrino degeneracy) are reviewed and updated. The BBN constraints on dark radiation and on the baryon density following from considerations of the primordial abundances of deuterium and helium-4 are in excellent agreement with the complementary results from the CMB, providing a suggestive, but currently inconclusive, hint of the presence of dark radiation and, they constrain any lepton asymmetry. For all the cases considered here there is a "lithium problem": the BBN-predicted lithium abundance exceeds the observationally inferred primordial value by a factor of ~3.Comment: Invited Review article for the Special Issue on Neutrino Physics, Advances in High Energy Physics, 25 pages, 10 figure

Hiding relativistic degrees of freedom in the early universe

We quantify the extent to which extra relativistic energy density can be concealed by a neutrino asymmetry without conflicting with the baryon asymmetry measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). In the presence of a large electron neutrino asymmetry, slightly more than seven effective neutrinos are allowed by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and WMAP at 2\sigma. The same electron neutrino degeneracy that reconciles the BBN prediction for the primordial helium abundance with the observationally inferred value also reconciles the LSND neutrino with BBN by suppressing its thermalization prior to BBN.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure