Nucleosynthesis in the Early Universe

Physics – Nuclear Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

At present, nucleosynthesis constitutes our most reliable and easily interpreted probe of the physics of the early universe at epochs where the temperature is in excess of T ~ 0.1 MeV. Comparing calculations of the nucleosynthesis yields of ^2H, ^3He, ^4He, and ^7Li with the observationally-inferred primordial abundances of these species provides insight into fundamental neutrino physics, the baryon and net lepton number content of the universe, the spatial distribution of entropy at the epoch of nucleosynthesis, and stellar/galactic evolution. Recent determinations of the deuterium abundance in high redshift Lyman limit systems have revolutionized primordial nucleosynthesis studies and promise even deeper insights into the physics of the early universe. Here we will discuss the implications of these recent results for constraints on neutrino physics and entropy inhomogeneities. Constraints on the latter give important clues on the origin of the baryon assymetry in the universe, and may provide a way for primordial nucleosynthesis to probe the electroweak symmetry breaking epoch. We will discuss key nuclear and nuclear reaction considerations which bear on deuterium and ^4He synthesis. This work was supported by NSF Grant PHY-9503384 and a NASA Theory Grant at UCSD.

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