PRIMORDIAL NUCLEOSYNTHESIS: SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES

By G. Steigman. 2005

170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Primordial nucleosynthesis provides a probe of the Universe during its early evolution. Given the progress exploring the constituents, structure, and recent evolution of the Universe, it is timely to review the status of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and to confront its predictions, and the constraints which emerge from them, with those derived from independent observations of the Universe at much later epochs in its evolution. Following an overview of the key physics controlling element synthesis in the early Universe, the predictions of the standard models of cosmology and particle physics (SBBN) are presented, along with those from some non-standard models. The observational data used to infer the primordial abundances are described, with an emphasis on the distinction between precision and accuracy. These relic abundances are compared with predictions, testing the internal consistency of BBN and enabling a comparison of the BBN constraints with those derived from the WMAP Cosmic Background Radiation ...

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/968052bf8806012cf14fc8523118a8d565677c14

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Citations in the corpus

Leptogenesis in the Universe (2012, background): “(1.4) (at 95%c.l.) read: Y BBN∆B = (8.10± 0.85)× 10−11, Y CMB∆B = (8.79± 0.44)× 10−11.”
The cluster gas mass fraction as a cosmological probe: a revised study (2009, background): “We note that the recent compilation of the best-fit results from the Primordial Nucleosythesis calculations on Ωb provides comparable constraints (see, e.g., Steigman 2006, page 34: Ωbh270 = 0.0454 ± 0.0045).”
The Primordial Abundance of 4He: A Self-consistent Empirical Analysis of Systematic Effects in a Large Sample of Low-Metallicity H II Regions (2007, methodology): “In Figure 13, we show by solid curves the dependence of the abundances of the three light elements He, D, and 7Li on the baryon-to-photon number ratio PRIMORDIAL ABUNDANCE OF 4He 31No. 1, 2007 as predicted by SBBN (e.g., Steigman 2006).”
On the Robustness of the Acoustic Scale in the Low-Redshift Clustering of Matter (2006, background): “For currently accepted values of Ωb (Spergel et al. 2006; Steigman 2006), R < 0.3 at z > 1000 so the decay of the period is small.”
Revised Primordial Helium Abundance Based on New Atomic Data (2007, background): “In the range 4P 10 P 8 (corresponding to 0:2448P Yp P 0:2512), Yp is related to 10 by (Steigman 2006a) Yp ¼ 0:2384þ 10=625: ð6Þ In the same 10 range, the primordial deuterium abundance is given by (Steigman 2006a) 105 D=Hð Þp ¼ Dp ¼ 46:5 1:6 10 : ð7Þ From our Yp value, the Dp value by O’Meara et…”
Inflation and the scale dependent spectral index: prospects and strategies (2010, background): “[36]) and evidence for a cosmological neutrino background [37] imply that the universe was in thermal equilibrium at MeV temperatures, and the evolution of the universe between this epoch and the present day is assumed to be well-understood.”
THE PRIMORDIAL ABUNDANCE OF 4He: EVIDENCE FOR NON-STANDARD BIG BANG NUCLEOSYNTHESIS (2010, background): “Although He is not a sensitive baryometer (Yp depends only logarithmically on the baryon density), its primordial abundance depends much more sensitively than that of D on the expansion rate of the Universe and on a possible lepton asymmetry in the early universe (Steigman 2006, 2007).”
Origin of the abundance patterns in Galactic globular clusters: constraints on dynamical and chemical properties of globular clusters (2007, methodology): “Since Li is destroyed in massive stars, we have that X2GLi (at) = atX init Li , (28) where X2GLi is the mass fraction of Li in second generation stars at birth, XinitLi is the value derived from WMAP data and the standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis (A(Li) = 2.65 according to Steigman 2006).”
The Pisa pre-main sequence tracks and isochrones - A database covering a wide range of Z, Y, mass, and age values (2011, methodology): “For the cosmological value of Yp, we used both the recent WMAP estimate Yp = 0.2485 (Cyburt et al. 2004; Steigman 2006; Peimbert et al. 2007a,b) and an older estimate of Yp = 0.230 (Lequeux et al. 1979; Pagel & Simonson 1989; Olive et al. 1991), usually referred to as canonical Yp in several…”