Search results for "Big Bang nucleosynthesis"
showing 10 items of 34 documents
The Nuclear astrophysics program at n_TOF (CERN)
2017
An important experimental program on Nuclear Astrophysics is being carried out at the n_TOF since several years, in order to address the still open issues in stellar and primordial nucleosynthesis. Several neutron capture reactions relevant to s-process nucleosynthesis have been measured so far, some of which on important branching point radioisotopes. Furthermore, the construction of a second experimental area has recently opened the way to challenging measurements of (n, charged particle) reactions on isotopes of short half-life. The Nuclear Astrophysics program of the n_TOF Collaboration is here described, with emphasis on recent results relevant for stellar nucleosynthesis, stellar neut…
Be7(n,α)He4Reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: Measurement of the Cross Section in a Wide Energy Range at n_TOF at CERN
2016
The energy-dependent cross section of the (7)Bed(n,alpha)He-4 reaction, of interest for the so-called cosmological lithium problem in big bang nucleosynthesis, has been measured for the first time from 10 meV to 10 keV neutron energy. The challenges posed by the short half-life of Be-7 and by the low reaction cross section have been overcome at n_TOF thanks to an unprecedented combination of the extremely high luminosity and good resolution of the neutron beam in the new experimental area (EAR2) of the n_TOF facility at CERN, the availability of a sufficient amount of chemically pure Be-7, and a specifically designed experimental setup. Coincidences between the two alpha particles have been…
Flavor versus mass eigenstates in neutrino asymmetries: implications for cosmology
2017
We show that, if they exist, lepton number asymmetries ($L_\alpha$) of neutrino flavors should be distinguished from the ones ($L_i$) of mass eigenstates, since Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) bounds on the flavor eigenstates cannot be directly applied to the mass eigenstates. Similarly, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) constraints on mass eigenstates do not directly constrain flavor asymmetries. Due to the difference of mass and flavor eigenstates, the cosmological constraint on the asymmetries of neutrino flavors can be much stronger than conventional expectation, but not uniquely determined unless at least the asymmetry of the heaviest neutrino is well constrained. Cosmological constrain…
Reheating the Standard Model from a hidden sector
2016
We consider a scenario where the inflaton decays to a hidden sector thermally decoupled from the visible Standard Model sector. A tiny portal coupling between the hidden and the visible sectors later heats the visible sector so that the Standard Model degrees of freedom come to dominate the energy density of the Universe before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We find that this scenario is viable, although obtaining the correct dark matter abundance and retaining successful Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is not obvious. We also show that the isocurvature perturbations constituted by a primordial Higgs condensate are not problematic for the viability of the scenario.
Constraining the cosmic radiation density due to lepton number with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
2011
The cosmic energy density in the form of radiation before and during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is typically parameterized in terms of the effective number of neutrinos N_eff. This quantity, in case of no extra degrees of freedom, depends upon the chemical potential and the temperature characterizing the three active neutrino distributions, as well as by their possible non-thermal features. In the present analysis we determine the upper bounds that BBN places on N_eff from primordial neutrino--antineutrino asymmetries, with a careful treatment of the dynamics of neutrino oscillations. We consider quite a wide range for the total lepton number in the neutrino sector, eta_nu= eta_{nu_e}+e…
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…