No Arabic abstract
Primordial or Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three historical strong evidences for the Big-Bang model together with the expansion of the Universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB). The recent results by the Planck mission have slightly changed the estimate of the baryonic density Omega_b, compared to the previous WMAP value. This article updates the BBN predictions for the light elements using the new value of Omega_b determined by Planck, as well as an improvement of the nuclear network and new spectroscopic observations. While there is no major modification, the error bars of the primordial D/H abundance (2.67+/-0.09) x 10^{-5} are narrower and there is a slight lowering of the primordial Li/H abundance (4.89^+0.41_-0.39) x 10^{-10}. However, this last value is still ~3 times larger than its observed spectroscopic abundance in halo stars of the Galaxy. Primordial Helium abundance is now determined to be Y_p = 0.2463+/-0.0003.
Primordial or big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three historical strong evidences for the big bang model. The recent results by the Planck satellite mission have slightly changed the estimate of the baryonic density compared to the previous WMAP analysis. This article updates the BBN predictions for the light elements using the cosmological parameters determined by Planck, as well as an improvement of the nuclear network and new spectroscopic observations. There is a slight lowering of the primordial Li/H abundance, however, this lithium value still remains typically 3 times larger than its observed spectroscopic abundance in halo stars of the Galaxy. According to the importance of this lithium problem, we trace the small changes in its BBN calculated abundance following updates of the baryonic density, neutron lifetime and networks. In addition, for the first time, we provide confidence limits for the production of 6Li, 9Be, 11B and CNO, resulting from our extensive Monte Carlo calculation with our extended network. A specific focus is cast on CNO primordial production. Considering uncertainties on the nuclear rates around the CNO formation, we obtain CNO/H approx (5-30) x 10^{-15}. We further improve this estimate by analyzing correlations between yields and reaction rates and identified new influential reaction rates. These uncertain rates, if simultaneously varied could lead to a significant increase of CNO production: CNO/H sim 10^{-13}. This result is important for the study of population III star formation during the dark ages.
Primordial or Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three strong evidences for the Big- Bang model together with the expansion of the Universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. In this study, we improve the standard BBN calculations taking into account new nuclear physics analyses and we enlarge the nuclear network until Sodium. This is, in particular, important to evaluate the primitive value of CNO mass fraction that could affect Population III stellar evolution. For the first time we list the complete network of more than 400 reactions with references to the origin of the rates, including approx 270 reaction rates calculated using the TALYS code. Together with the cosmological light elements, we calculate the primordial Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen nuclei. We performed a sensitivity study to identify the important reactions for CNO, 9Be and Boron nucleosynthesis. We reevaluated those important reaction rates using experimental data and/or theoretical evaluations. The results are compared with precedent calculations: a primordial Beryllium abundance increase by a factor of 4 compared to its previous evaluation, but we note a stability for B/H and for the CNO/H abundance ratio that remains close to its previous value of 0.7 times 10-15. On the other hand, the extension of the nuclear network has not changed the 7Li value, so its abundance is still 3-4 times greater than its observed spectroscopic value.
I review standard big bang nucleosynthesis and so
In the primordial Universe, neutrino decoupling occurs only slightly before electron-positron annihilations, leading to an increased neutrino energy density with order $10^{-2}$ spectral distortions compared to the standard instantaneous decoupling approximation. However, there are discrepancies in the literature on the impact it has on the subsequent primordial nucleosynthesis, in terms of both the magnitude of the abundance modifications and their sign. We review how neutrino decoupling indirectly affects the various stages of nucleosynthesis, namely, the freezing out of neutron abundance, the duration of neutron beta decay, and nucleosynthesis itself. This allows to predict the sign of the abundance variations that are expected when the physics of neutrino decoupling is taken into account. For simplicity, we ignore neutrino oscillations, but we conjecture from the detailed interplay of neutrino temperature shifts and distortions that their effect on final light element abundances should be subdominant.
We provide the most stringent constraint to date on possible deviations from the usually-assumed Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) velocity distribution for nuclei in the Big-Bang plasma. The impact of non-extensive Tsallis statistics on thermonuclear reaction rates involved in standard models of Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) has been investigated. We find that the non-extensive parameter $q$ may deviate by, at most, $|delta q|$=6$times$10$^{-4}$ from unity for BBN predictions to be consistent with observed primordial abundances; $q$=1 represents the classical Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. This constraint arises primarily from the {em super}sensitivity of endothermic rates on the value of $q$, which is found for the first time. As such, the implications of non-extensive statistics in other astrophysical environments should be explored. This may offer new insight into the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements.