Measurements of Nuclear Reactions that Create and Destroy Li and Be\n during BBN

2020/02/12 by B. Davids, Davids, Barry
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Graphite, nuclear technology, radiation studies #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Nuclear reactor physics and engineering #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2002.05280

openalex publication_date 2020/02/12 · openalex created_date 2021/03/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

I review measurements of the most important reactions involved in the\ncreation and destruction of Li and Be during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) as\nwell as their uncertainties and the relative contributions they make to the\nuncertainty in the primordial ⁷Li abundance (⁷Li/H). Examining the\nsensitivity of calculated ⁷Li/H to these reactions as predicted by different\nBBN codes I find no significant differences. I compare my calculation of\nprimordial ⁷Li/H to some recently published values and conclude that in the\nabsence of a major undetected experimental blunder, nuclear physics\nuncertainties cannot account for the cosmological Li problem. With an estimated\n13% uncertainty in the calculated abundance, the discrepancy with observation\namounts to some 4.6\σ.\n

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