Assuming the lightest neutralino forms dark matter, we study its residual annihilation after freeze-out at the early universe. If taking place after the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) the annihilation products, especially at the hadronic modes, may cause nonthermal nuclear reaction and change the prediction of the primordial abundance of light elements in the standard BBN scenario. We therefore put constraints on the neutralino annihilation cross section. These constraints are free of the uncertainties of the dark matter profile today suffered by direct or indirect detection of dark matter. We find the constraints by BBN is important, especially when taking large $\tanβ$. If the light element abundances can be determined with higher precision in the future the constraint will become very strong, so that a majority of the parameter space allowed by the relic density requirement may be excluded.
We outline how relic neutrino asymmetries may be generated in the early universe via active-sterile neutrino oscillations. We discuss possible consequences for big bang nucleosynthesis, within the context of a particular 4-neutrino model.
The role of neutrinos in big bang nucleosynthesis is discussed. The bounds on the number of neutrino families, neutrino degeneracy, parameters of neutrino oscillations are presented. A model of chemically inhomogeneous, while energetically smooth, universe created by inhomogeneous cosmological neutrino asymmetry is described. Nucleosynthesis limits on production of right-handed neutrinos are considered.
The role of neutrinos in big bang nucleosynthesis is reviewed. Neutrino oscillations in the early universe both in resonance and non-resonance case are briefly discussed. BBN and supernova limits on heavy sterile neutrinos with the mass in 10-100 MeV range are presented and compared with direct experimental bounds.
We investigate the implications of the standard Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis constraint on the number of light neutrinos in the framework of the two four-neutrino schemes that are favored by the results of neutrino oscillation experiments.
We consider Big Bang Nucleosynthesis(BBN) with long lived charged massive particles. Before decaying, the long lived massive particles recombines with a light element to form a bound state like a hydrogen atom. We discuss the possible change of primordial light element abundances due to formations of such bound states.
We examine the effects of relic dark matter annihilations on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). The magnitude of these effects have scale simply with the dark matter mass and annihilation cross-section, which we derive. Estimates based on these scaling behaviors indicate that BBN severely constrains hadronic and radiative dark matter annihilation channels in the previously unconsidered dark matter mass region MeV $\lesssim m_χ \lesssim 10$ GeV. Interestingly, we find that BBN constraints on hadronic annihilation channels are competitive with similar bounds derived from the cosmic microwave backgr…
We investigate the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints on neutrino mixing in the framework of the two four-neutrino schemes that are favored by the results of neutrino oscillation experiments. We discuss the implications of these constraints for terrestrial short and long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and we present some possibilities of testing them in these experiments. In particular, we show that from the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints it follows that the nu(mu)->nu(tau) transition is severely suppressed in short-baseline experiments, whereas its oscillation amplitude in …
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 matt…
We propose helium-4 spallation processes induced by long-lived stau in supersymmetric standard models, and investigate an impact of the processes on light elements abundances. We show that, as long as the phase space of helium-4 spallation processes is open, they are more important than stau-catalyzed fusion and hence constrain the stau property. This talk is based on works (Jittoh et al., 2011).
We review how our current understanding of the light element synthesis during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis era may help shed light on the identity of particle dark matter.
A brief overview of non-standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) scenarios is presented. Trends and results of the light-element nucleosynthesis in BBN scenarios with small-scale or large-scale inhomogeneity, the presence of antimatter domains, stable or unstable massive neutrinos, neutrino oscillations, neutrino degeneracy, or massive decaying particles are summarized.
We consider the possibility of the coupling constants of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ gauge interactions at the time of big bang nucleosynthesis having taken different values from what we measure at present, and investigate the allowed difference requiring the shift in the coupling constants not violate the successful calculation of the primordial abundances of the light elements. We vary gauge couplings and Yukawa couplings (fermion masses) using a model in which their relative variations are governed by a single scalar field, dilaton, as found in string theory. The results include a li…
A brief review of standard big bang nucleosynthesis theory and the related observations of the light element isotopes is presented. Implications of BBN on chemical evolution and constraints on particle properties will also be discussed.
There exists a well known problem with the Li7+Be7 abundance predicted by standard big bang nucleosynthesis being larger than the value observed in population II stars. The catalysis of big bang nucleosynthesis by metastable, τ_X \ge 10^3 sec, charged particles X^- is capable of suppressing the primordial Li7+Be7, abundance and making it consistent with the observations. We show that to produce the correct abundance, this mechanism of suppression places a requirement on the initial abundance of X^- at temperatures of 4\times 10^8 K to be on the order of or larger than 0.02 per baryon, which is…
Standard big bang nucleosynthesis (SBBN) has been remarkably successful, and it may well be the correct and sufficient account of what happened. However, interest in variations from the standard picture come from two sources: First, big bang nucleosynthesis can be used to constrain physics of the early universe. Second, there may be some discrepancy between predictions of SBBN and observations of abundances. Various alternatives to SBBN include inhomogeneous nucleosynthesis, nucleosynthesis with antimatter, and nonstandard neutrino physics.
The current status of big bang nucleosynthesis is reviewed. Particular attention is given to the degree at which the theory is consistent with the observation of the light element abundances.
The current status of big bang nucleosynthesis and its implications for physics beyond the standard model is reviewed. In particular, limits on the effective number of neutrino flavors and extra Z gauge boson masses are updated.
We discuss a new variant of the E6 inspired supersymmetric standard model (E6SSM) in which the two inert singlinos are exactly massless and the dark matter candidate has a dominant bino component. A successful relic density is achieved via a novel mechanism in which the bino scatters inelastically into heavier inert Higgsinos during the time of thermal freeze-out. The two massless inert singlinos contribute to the effective number of neutrino species at the time of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, where the precise contribution depends on the mass of the Z' which keeps them in equilibrium. For exampl…
Cosmological and astrophysical effects of heavy (10 - 200 MeV) sterile Dirac neutrinos, mixed with the active ones, are considered. The bounds on mass and mixing angle from both supernovae and big-bang nucleosynthesis are presented.
The thermal rates for converting neutrons to protons, and vice versa, are calculated, including corrections of order 1 MeV divided by a nucleon mass. The results imply that the primodial helium abundance predicted for big bang nucleosynthesis has been systematically underestimated by about $δY_4 = 0.0012$, i.e., $δY_4 / Y_4 \approx .005$.
We investigate in detail the parameter space of active-sterile neutrino oscillations that amplifies neutrino chemical potentials at the epoch of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We calculate the magnitude of the amplification and show evidences of chaos in the amplification process. We also discuss the implications of the neutrino chemical potential amplification in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. It is shown that with a $\sim 1$ eV $\nue$, the amplification of its chemical potential by active-sterile neutrino oscillations can lower the effective number of neutrino species at Big Bang Nucleosynthesis t…
We calculate primordial abundances of light elements produced during big bang nucleosynthesis when the fine structure constant and/or the cosmic expansion rate take non-standard values. We compare them with the recent values of observed D, He4 and Li7 abundances, which show slight inconsistency among themselves in the standard big bang nucleosynthesis scenario. This inconsistency is not solved by considering either a varying fine structure constant or a non-standard expansion rate separately but solutions are found by their simultaneous existence.
We present a brief review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We discuss theoretical and observational uncertainties in deuterium and helium-4 primordial abundances and their implications for the determination of important cosmological parameters. We present, moreover, some recent results on active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early universe and on their effects on BBN.
A review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is presented. Observations of deuterium and helium-4 are discussed. Some BBN restrictions on non-standard physics, especially on neutrino properties and time-variation of fundamental constants are given.
We investigate analytically the evolution of the primordial neutrino asymmetry caused by active-sterile neutrino oscillations. In particular, we concentrate on possible chaotic oscillations of the asymmetry. For a certain range of parameters, we find that the asymmetry indeed oscillates, provided we neglect the momentum distribution.
Recent observational and theoretical developments concerning the primordial synthesis of the light elements are reviewed, and the implications for dark matter mentioned.
The synthesis of Li6 during the epoch of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) due to residual annihilation of dark matter particles is considered. By comparing the predicted Li6 to observations of this isotope in low-metallicity stars, generic constraints on s-wave dark matter annihilation rates into quarks, gauge bosons, and Higgs bosons are derived. It may be shown that, for example, wino dark matter in anomaly-mediated SUSY breaking scenarios with masses Mx < 250 GeV or light neutralinos with Mx < 20 GeV annihilating into light quarks are, taken face value, ruled out. These constraints may only b…
We consider the effects of the injections of energetic photon and electron (or positron) on the big-bang nucleosynthesis. We study the photodissociation of light elements in the early Universe paying particular attention to the case that the injection energy is sub-GeV and derive upper bounds on the primordial abundances of the massive decaying particle as a function of its lifetime. We also discuss a solution of the $^7$Li problem in this framework.
WThe current status of big bang nucleosynthesis is reviewed with an emphasis on the comparison between the observational determination of the light element abundances of \D, \he3, \he4 and \li7 and the predictions from theory. In particular, we present new analyses for \he4 and \li7. Implications for physics beyond the standard model are also discussed. Limits on the effective number of neutrino flavors are also updated.
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), an epoch of primordial nuclear transformations in the expanding Universe, has left an observable imprint in the abundances of light elements. Precision observations of such abundances, combined with high-accuracy predictions, provide a nontrivial test of the hot big bang and probe non-standard cosmological and particle physics scenarios. We give an overview of BBN sensitivity to different classes of new physics: new particle or field degrees of freedom, time-varying couplings, decaying or annihilating massive particles leading to non-thermal processes, and catal…
In this article, we study the implications of the coupling between Axion-Like-Particles (ALPs) and Leptons to cosmology, in particular, the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We show that the BBN, through the constraint on the effective number of relativistic neutrino species, provides the most stringent bound on the ALP-electron interaction strength for the mass of axion between 20 keV and 1 MeV. For other values of the mass, the BBN bound complements the stellar-evolution and laboratory bounds.
We examine the constraints imposed by the requirement of successful big bang nucleosynthesis on models with one large extra dimension and a single bulk neutrino. We solve the Boltzman kinetic equations for the thermal distribution of bulk neutrino modes and evaluate their contribution to the energy density of the universe at the BBN epoch. This helps us to constrain the size of the extra dimensions and the mixing parameter between the active and bulk neutrinos.
We consider inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis in light of the present observational situation. Different observations of He-4 and D disagree with each other, and depending on which set of observations one uses, the estimated primordial He-4 corresponds to a lower baryon density in standard big bang nucleosynthesis than what one gets from deuterium. Recent Kamiokande results rule out a favorite particle physics solution to this tension between He-4 and D. Inhomogeneous nucleosynthesis can alleviate this tension, but the more likely solution is systematics in the observations. The upper lim…
We investigate constraints on Lorentz invariance violation in the neutrino sector from a joint analysis of big bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background. The effect of Lorentz invariance violation during the epoch of big bang nucleosynthesis changes the predicted helium-4 abundance, which influences the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background at the recombination epoch. In combination with the latest measurement of the primordial helium-4 abundance, the Planck 2015 data of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies give a strong constraint on the deformation paramete…
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis imposes stringent bounds on light sterile neutrinos mixing with the active flavors. Here we discuss how altered dispersion relations can weaken such bounds and allow compatibility of new sterile neutrino degrees of freedom with a successful generation of the light elements in the early Universe.
I review standard big bang nucleosynthesis and some versions of nonstandard BBN. The abundances of the primordial isotopes D, He-3, and Li-7 produced in standard BBN can be calculated as a function of the baryon density with an accuracy of about 10%. For He-4 the accuracy is better than 1%. The calculated abundances agree fairly well with observations, but the baryon density of the universe cannot be determined with high precision. Possibilities for nonstandard BBN include inhomogeneous and antimatter BBN and nonzero neutrino chemical potentials.
Recently it is reported that there is the discrepancy between big bang nucleosynthesis theory and observations (BBN crisis). We show that BBN predictions agree with the primordial abundances of light elements, He4, D, He3 and Li7 inferred from the observational data if an electron neutrino has a net chemical potential xi_{nu_e} due to lepton asymmetry. We estimate that xi_{nu_e} = 0.043^{+0.040}_{-0.040} (95% C.L.) and Omega_bh^2 = 0.015^{+0.006}_{-0.003} (95% C.L.).
The last parameter of big-bang nucleosynthesis, the baryon density, is being pinned down by measurements of the deuterium abundance in high-redshift hydrogen clouds. When it is determined, it will fix the primeval light-element abundances. D, ^3He and ^7Li will become ``tracers'' for the study of Galactic and stellar chemical evolution, and big-bang nucleosynthesis will become an even sharper probe of particle physics, e.g., the bound to the number of light neutrino species will be tightened significantly. Two key tests of the consistency of the standard theory are on the horizon: an independe…
We use big bang nucleosynthesis bounds on the variation of the gravitational coupling to derive constraints on the strength of the deviation from the gravitational inverse-square law due to tensor and vector unparticle exchange.
We study the light-element abundances in supersymmetric model where the right-handed sneutrino is the lightest superparticle (LSP), assuming that the neutrino masses are purely Dirac-type. In such a scenario, the lightest superparticle in the minimal supersymmetric standard model sector (which we call MSSM-LSP) becomes long-lived, and thermal relic MSSM-LSP may decay after the big-bang nucleosynthesis starts. We calculate the light-element abundances including non-standard nuclear reactions induced by the MSSM-LSP decay, and derive constraints on the scenario of right-handed sneutrino LSP.
The discrepancy between the theoretical prediction of primordial lithium abundances and astronomical observations is called the Lithium Problem. We find that extra contributions from non-thermal hydrogen and helium during Big Bang nucleosynthesis can explain the discrepancy, for both Li-7 and Li-6, and will change the deuterium abundance only little. The allowed parameter space of such an amount of non-thermal particles and the energy range is shown. The hypothesis is stable regardless of the cross-section uncertainty of relevant reactions and the explicit shape of the energy spectrum.
We study the effects of dark-matter annihilation during the epoch of big-bang nucleosynthesis on the primordial abundances of light elements. We improve the calculation of the light-element abundances by taking into account the effects of anti-nucleons emitted by the annihilation of dark matter and the interconversion reactions of neutron and proton at inelastic scatterings of energetic nucleons. Comparing the theoretical prediction of the primordial light-element abundances with the latest observational constraints, we derive upper bounds on the dark-matter pair-annihilation cross section. Im…
We extend previous studies of big bang nucleosynthesis, with the assumption that ordinary matter and dark matter sectors are entangled through the number of degrees of freedom entering the Friedmann equations. This conjecture allows us to find a relation between the temperatures of the weakly interacting matter and dark-matter sectors. The constraints imposed by observations are studied by comparison with calculations of big bang nucleosynthesis for the abundance of light elements. It is found that these constraints are compatible with cold dark matter and a wide range number of dark sectors.
We investigate the electromagnetic cascade initiated by injection of very high energy photons in the early Universe and calculate the cascade spectrum by solving a set of Boltzmann equations numerically. In the calculation we take account of Compton scattering off the background electrons and pair creation off the background nucleons as well as photon-photon processes and inverse Compton scattering. We also apply our cascade spectrum to the big bang nucleosynthesis with photo-dissociation processes due to heavy unstable particles and obtain the constraint on their lifetime and abundance.
We discuss a new mechanism which can solve the crisis in standard big-bang nucleosynthesis. A long-lived particle $X$ ($10^4 sec \lesssim τ_X \lesssim 10^6 sec$) which decays into photon(s) will induce cascade photons, and destroy significant amounts of D and $^3$He without destroying $^4$He or too much $^7$Li. We numerically investigate this process and derive a constraint on the properties of $X$ such that the theoretical values of the primordial light-element abundances agree with observation. We also present some candidates for the unstable particle $X$.
We show that Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) significantly constrains axion-like dark matter. The axion acts like an oscillating QCD $θ$ angle that redshifts in the early universe, increasing the neutron-proton mass difference at neutron freeze-out. An axion-like particle that couples too strongly to QCD results in the underproduction of 4He during BBN and is thus excluded. The BBN bound overlaps with much of the parameter space that would be covered by proposed searches for time-varying neutron EDMs. The QCD axion does not couple strongly enough to affect BBN.
The recent Boomerang and MAXIMA data on the cosmic microwave background suggest a large value for the baryonic matter density of the universe, omega_b = 0.03. This density is larger than allowed by standard big bang nucleosynthesis theory and observations on the abundances of the light elements. We explore here the possibility of accommodating this high density in inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis (IBBN). It turns out that in IBBN the observed D and Y_p values are quite consistent with this high density. However, IBBN is not able to reduce the 7Li yield by more than about a factor of two.…
We report the results of a new accurate evaluation of light nuclei yields in primordial nucleosynthesis. All radiative effects, finite nucleon mass, thermal and plasma corrections are included in the proton to neutron conversion rates. The relic densities of He4, D and Li7 have been numerically obtained via a new updated version of the standard BBN code. In particular the theoretical uncertainty on He4 is reduced to the order of 0.1%.
Hadronic axions with the decay constant $f_a\simeq 10^{6}$ GeV may fulfill all astrophysical and laboratory constraints discussed so far. In this paper, we reexamine the possibility of the hadronic axion window while taking into account the uncertainties of some parameters describing low energy axion dynamics. It is found that $f_a$ in the range from $3\times 10^5$ GeV to $3\times 10^6$ can not be excluded by existing arguments. We then examine the implication of this hadronic axion window for the big-bang nucleosynthesis (NS) by evaluating the energy density of thermal axions at the nucleosyn…
We show how the $^4$He-abundance in the early Universe can be used to demonstrate that macroscopic samples of neutrinos in thermal equilibrium are indeed distributed according to Fermi-Dirac statistics.
We extend the model-independent likelihood analysis of big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) based on He4 and Li7 to allow for numbers of degrees of freedom which differ from the standard model value characterized by $N_ν= 3$. We use the two-dimensional likelihood functions to simultaneously constrain the baryon-to-photon ratio and the number of light neutrinos. The upper limit thus obtained is $N_ν< 4.0$ (at 95% C.L.). We also consider the consequences if recent observations of deuterium in high-redshift QSO absorption-line systems (QSOALS) are confirmed.
We re-examine the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) bounds on the mixing of neutrinos with sterile species. These bounds depend on the assumption that the relic neutrino asymmetry $L_ν$ is very small. We show that for $L_ν$ large enough (greater than about $10^{-5}$) the standard BBN bounds do not apply. We apply this result to the sterile neutrino solution to the atmospheric neutrino anomaly and show that for $L_ν > 7 \times 10^{-5}$ it is consistent with BBN. The BBN bounds on sterile neutrinos mixing with electron neutrinos can also be weakened considerably.
We study the effects of electron screening on nuclear reaction rates occurring during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis epoch. The sensitivity of the predicted elemental abundances on electron screening is studied in details. It is shown that electron screening does not produce noticeable results in the abundances unless the traditional Debye-Hückel model for the treatment of electron screening in stellar environments is enhanced by several orders of magnitude. The present work rules out electron screening as a relevant ingredient to Big Bang nucleosynthesis and ruling out exotic possibilities for …
We study the effects of the unstable gravitino on the big-bang nucleosynthesis. If the gravitino mass is smaller than \sim 10 TeV, primordial gravitinos produced after the inflation are likely to decay after the big-bang nucleosynthesis starts, and the light element abundances may be significantly affected by the hadro- and photo-dissociation processes as well as by the p n conversion process. We calculate the light element abundances and derived upper bound on the reheating temperature after the inflation. In our analysis, we calculate the decay parameters of the gravitino (i.e., lifetime and…
Following a recent suggestion of axion cooling of photons between the nucleosynthesis and recombination epochs in the Early Universe, we investigate a hybrid model with both axions and relic supersymmetric particles. In this model we demonstrate that the 7Li abundance can be consistent with observations without destroying the important concordance of deuterium abundance.
We study the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) scenario with late-decaying exotic particles with lifetime longer than $\sim 1$ sec. With a late-decaying particle in the early universe, predictions of the standard BBN scenario can be significantly altered. Therefore, we derive constraints on its primordial abundance. We pay particular attention to hadronic decay modes of such particles. We see that the non-thermal production process of D, ${\rm ^{3}He}$ and ${\rm ^6Li}$ provides a stringent upper bound on the primordial abundance oflate-decaying particles with hadronic branching ratio.
We consider constraints on long-lived charged scalar leptons \tilde{l}^\pm in supersymmetric models, where gravitino is the lightest superparticle. We study the decay and hadronization processes of \tilde{l}^\pm. We also take into account the significant enhancement of Li6 production due to the formation of the bound-state (He4 \tilde{l}^-); for this purpose, we use the reaction rate given by the most recent calculation based on coupled-channel method.
Recently we presented a simple method for determining the correlated uncertainties of the light element abundances expected from big bang nucleosynthesis, which avoids the need for lengthy Monte Carlo simulations. We now extend this approach to consider departures from the Standard Model, in particular to constrain any new light degrees of freedom present in the thermal plasma during nucleosynthesis. Since the observational situation regarding the inferred primordial abundances has not yet stabilized, we present illustrative bounds on the equivalent number of neutrino species N_nu for various …
