13 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
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Neutron cross section measurements at WNR
The Weapons Neutron Research Facility has been used to obtain moderate-resolution total neutron cross section data for H, C, /sup 208/Pb, /sup 232/Th, /sup 238/U, and /sup 242/Pu over the energy range 5 to 200 MeV. Neutrons were produced by bombarding a 2.5-cm diam by 15-cm long Ta target with an 800 MeV pulsed proton beam from LAMPF. A 10.2-cm diam by 15.2-cm thick NE110 proton recoil detector was used at a flight path of 32 meters, giving a time-of-flight resolution of 60 ps/m. The total cross section results are compared to ENDF/BV evaluations and to previous data where possible