Search results for " nucleosynthesis"
showing 10 items of 44 documents
The X-ray emission of the supernova remnant W49B observed withXMM-Newton
2006
In the framework of the study of supernova remnants and their complex interaction with the interstellar medium, we report on an XMM-Newton EPIC observation of the Galactic supernova remnant W49B. We investigate the spatial distribution of the chemical and physical properties of the plasma, so as to get important constraints on the physical scenario, on the dynamics of the supernova explosion, and on the interaction of the supernova remnant with the ambient interstellar clouds. We present line images, equivalent width maps, and a spatially resolved spectral analysis of a set of homogeneous regions. The X-ray spectrum of W49B is characterized by strong K emission lines from Si, S, Ar, Ca and …
Primordial Heavy Element Production
1995
A number of possible mechanisms have been suggested to generate density in-homogeneities in the early Universe which could survive until the onset of primordial nucleosynthesis (Malaney and Mathews 1993). In this work we are not concerned with how the inhomogeneities were generated but we want to focus on the effect of such inhomogeneities on primordial nucleosynthesis. One of the proposed signatures of inhomogeneity, the synthesis of very heavy elements by neutron capture, was analyzed for varying baryon to photon ratios n and length scales L. A detailed discussion is published in (Rauscher et al. 1994b). Preliminary results can be found in (Thielemann et al. 1991; Rauscher et al. 1994a).
Big-bang nucleosynthesis and the relic abundance of dark matter in a stau-neutralino coannihilation scenario
2008
A scenario of the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis is analyzed within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model which is consistent with a stau-neutralino coannihilation scenario to explain the relic abundance of dark matter. We find that we can account for the possible descrepancy of the abundance of $\mathrm{^{7}Li}$ between the observation and the prediction of the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis by taking the mass of the neutralino as $300 \mathrm{GeV}$ and the mass difference between the stau and the neutralino as $(100 -- 120) MeV$. We can therefore simultaneously explain the abundance of the dark matter and that of $\mathrm{^{7}Li}$ by these values of parameters. The lifetime of staus in this scena…
Do observations prove that cosmological neutrinos are thermally distributed?
2005
It is usually assumed that relic neutrinos possess a Fermi-Dirac distribution, acquired during thermal equilibrium in the Early Universe. However, various mechanisms could introduce strong distortions in this distribution. We perform a Bayesian likelihood analysis including the first moments of the three active neutrino distributions as free parameters, and show that current cosmological observations of light element abundances, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies and Large Scale Structures (LSS) are compatible with very large deviations from the standard picture. We also calculate the bounds on non-thermal distortions which can be expected from future observations, and stress th…
Measuring the cosmological background of relativistic with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
2003
We show that the first year results of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) constrain very efficiently the energy density in relativistic particles in the Universe. We derive new bounds on additional relativistic degrees of freedom expressed in terms of an excess in the effective number of light neutrinos $\ensuremath{\Delta}{N}_{\mathrm{eff}}.$ Within the flat \ensuremath{\Lambda}CDM scenario, the allowed range is $\ensuremath{\Delta}{N}_{\mathrm{eff}}l6$ (95% confidence level) using WMAP data only, or $\ensuremath{-}2.6l\ensuremath{\Delta}{N}_{\mathrm{eff}}l4$ with the prior ${H}_{0}=72\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}8\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{\ensure…
Effects of non-standard neutrino-electron interactions on relic neutrino decoupling
2006
We consider the decoupling of neutrinos in the early Universe in presence of non-standard neutral current neutrino-electron interactions (NSI). We first discuss a semi-analytical approach to solve the relevant kinetic equations and then present the results of fully numerical and momentum-dependent calculations, including flavor neutrino oscillations. We present our results in terms of both the effective number of neutrino species (N_eff) and the impact on the abundance of He-4 produced during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We find that, for NSI parameters within the ranges allowed by present laboratory data, non-standard neutrino-electron interactions do not essentially modify the density of rel…
Primordial Nucleosynthesis, Majorons and Heavy Tau Neutrinos
1996
We determine the restrictions imposed by primordial nucleosynthesis upon a heavy tau neutrino, in the presence of nu-tau annihilations into Majorons, as expected in a wide class of particle physics models of neutrino mass. We determine the equivalent number of light neutrino species $N_{eq}$ as a function of nu-tau mass and the nu-tau-Majoron coupling $g$. We show that for theoretically plausible $g$ values $\gsim 10^{-4}$ present nucleosynthesis observations can not rule out nu-tau masses in the MeV range. Moreover, these models give $N_{eq} \leq 3$ in the nu-tau mass region 1-10 MeV, for very reasonable values of $g \geq 3 \times 10^{-4}$. The evasion of the cosmological limits brings new…
Unstable massive tau-neutrinos and primordial nucleosynthesis
1998
The impact of unstable Majorana tau neutrinos on primordial nucleosynthesis is considered. The mass and lifetime of nu_tau are taken in the intervals 0.1-20 MeV and 0.001-400 sec respectively. The studied decay modes are nu_tau -> nu_mu + phi and nu_tau -> nu_e + phi, where phi is a massless (or light) scalar. Integro-differential kinetic equations are solved numerically without any simplifying assumptions. Our results deviate rather strongly from earlier calculations. Depending on mass, lifetime, and decay channels of the nu_tau, the number of effective neutrino species (found from He4), in addition to the 3 standard ones, varies from -2 to +2.5. The abundances of H2 and Li7 are also…
Sterile neutrino models and nonminimal cosmologies
2012
Cosmological measurements are affected by the energy density of massive neutrinos. We extend here a recent analysis of current cosmological data to nonminimal cosmologies. Several possible scenarios are examined: a constant $w\ensuremath{\ne}\ensuremath{-}1$ dark energy equation of state, a nonflat universe, a time-varying dark energy component and coupled dark matter-dark energy universes or modified gravity scenarios. When considering cosmological data only, ($3+2$) massive neutrino models with $\ensuremath{\sim}0.5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ sterile species are allowed at 95% confidence level. This scenario has been shown to reconcile reactor, LSND and MiniBooNE positive signals with nu…
Constraints on massive sterile neutrino species from current and future cosmological data
2011
Sterile massive neutrinos are a natural extension of the Standard Model of elementary particles. The energy density of the extra sterile massive states affects cosmological measurements in an analogous way to that of active neutrino species. We perform here an analysis of current cosmological data and derive bounds on the masses of the active and the sterile neutrino states as well as on the number of sterile states. The so-called (3+2) models with three sub-eV active massive neutrinos plus two sub-eV massive sterile species is well within the 95% CL allowed regions when considering cosmological data only. If the two extra sterile states have thermal abundances at decoupling, Big Bang Nucle…