Authors
Nachiketa Chakraborty, Brian D Fields, Keith A Olive
Publication date
2011/3/15
Journal
Physical Review D—Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology
Volume
83
Issue
6
Pages
063006
Publisher
American Physical Society
Description
We explore a nuclear physics resolution to the discrepancy between the predicted standard big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) abundance of and its observational determination in metal-poor stars. The theoretical abundance is 3–4 times greater than the observational values, assuming the baryon-to-photon ratio, , determined by WMAP. The problem could be resolved within the standard BBN picture if additional destruction of isotopes occurs due to new nuclear reaction channels or upward corrections to existing channels. This could be achieved via missed resonant nuclear reactions, which is the possibility we consider here. We find some potential candidate resonances which can solve the lithium problem and specify their required resonant energies and widths. For example, a or excited state of sitting at approximately 15.0 MeV above its ground state with an effective width of order 10 keV could …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
N Chakraborty, BD Fields, KA Olive - Physical Review D—Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and …, 2011