The Neutron Mean Life and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Standard BBN
3. Abundance Sensitivities to
4. BBN ‘Predictions’ of
5. Summary and Outlook
- New neutron lifetime measurements are planned. These include (a) both an upgrade magneto-gravitational trap experiment UCN+, and (b) an upgraded pulsed beam experiment, Beam Lifetime 3 (BL3) [68]. These can shed new light on and perhaps resolve the puzzle.
- The next generation CMB measurements from CMB-S4 will significantly improve both the determination of and from the CMB [66]. Improved measurements will be important for BBN to fully exploit these results, particularly .
- The ongoing effort to improve astronomical determinations continues. As we have discussed here and elsewhere [19], reaching the ambitious goal of would open a new window on new physics generally and in particular, approaching a precision near that of the present experimental discrepancy.
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1 | The arrows at the top of the figure correspond to typical baryon densities taken from mass-to-light ratios typical of the solar neighborhood, the central parts of galaxies, hot gas, and binaries and small groups of galaxies (BSG). At the time, it was not clear what object was truly representative of the cosmological average. |
2 | For more information about the construction and use of ideograms, see any issue of the Review of Particle Properties or the Review of Particle Physics. |
3 | In fact, we assume CDM, so that in addition to these Standard Model particles and interactions, there is (1) a nonzero cosmological constant which will be negligible during BBN, and (2) cold dark matter which we take to be so weakly interacting as to have no effect on BBN. These assumptions can be relaxed; see reviews in refs. [45,46,47]. |
4 | Including the in-beam measurement would further increase the dispersion requiring a scale factor of 2.2. |
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Year | Year | Year | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1959 | 1013 | ±26 | 1967 | 935 | ±14 | 1972 | 918 | ±14 |
1980 | 937 | ±18 | 1982 | 925 | ±11 | 1984 | 898 | ±16 |
1988 | 896 | ±10 | 1990 | 888.6 | ±3.5 | 1992 | 889.1 | ±2.1 |
1994 | 887.0 | ±2.0 | 1998 | 886.7 | ±1.9 | 2002 | 885.7 | ±0.8 |
2012 | 880.1 | ±1.1 | 2014 | 880.3 | ±1.1 | 2016 | 880.2 | ±1.0 |
2020 | 879.4 | ±0.6 | 2022 | 878.4 | ±0.5 |
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Yeh, T.-H.; Olive, K.A.; Fields, B.D. The Neutron Mean Life and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Universe 2023, 9, 183. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe9040183
Yeh T-H, Olive KA, Fields BD. The Neutron Mean Life and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Universe. 2023; 9(4):183. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe9040183
Chicago/Turabian StyleYeh, Tsung-Han, Keith A. Olive, and Brian D. Fields. 2023. "The Neutron Mean Life and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis" Universe 9, no. 4: 183. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe9040183