Dependence of the triple-alpha process on the fundamental constants of nature

Abstract

We present an ab initio calculation of the quark mass dependence of the ground state energies of ^4He, ^8Be and ^{12}C, and of the energy of the Hoyle state in ^{12}C. These investigations are performed within the framework of lattice chiral Effective Field Theory. We address the sensitivity of the production rate of carbon and oxygen in red giant stars to the fundamental constants of nature by considering the impact of variations in the light quark masses and the electromagnetic fine-structure constant on the reaction rate of the triple-alpha process. As carbon and oxygen are essential to life as we know it, we also discuss the implications of our findings for an anthropic view of the Universe. We find strong evidence that the physics of the triple-alpha process is driven by alpha clustering, and that shifts in the fundamental parameters at the \simeq 2 - 3 % level are unlikely to be detrimental to the development of life. Tolerance against much larger changes cannot be ruled out at present, given the relatively limited knowledge of the quark mass dependence of the two-nucleon S-wave scattering parameters. Lattice QCD is expected to provide refined estimates of the scattering parameters in the future.

16 pages, 7 figures, version accepted by EPJA

References in corpus (13)

• Chiral effective field theory and nuclear forces
• Structure and rotations of the Hoyle state
• Chiral Perturbation Theory and Baryon Properties
• Light hadrons from lattice QCD with light (u,d), strange and charm dynamical quarks
• Lattice Simulations for Light Nuclei: Chiral Effective Field Theory at Leading Order
• Viability of carbon-based life as a function of the light quark mass
• Nucleon mass: from lattice QCD to the chiral limit
• Varying the light quark mass: impact on the nuclear force and Big Bang nucleosynthesis
• Lattice chiral effective field theory with three-body interactions at next-to-next-to-leading order
• Quark mass variation constraints from Big Bang nucleosynthesis
• Baryon masses, chiral extrapolations, and all that
• Further comments on nuclear forces in the chiral limit
• The two-nucleon problem in EFT reformulated: Pion and nucleon masses as soft and hard scales

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• New Ideas in Constraining Nuclear Forces
• The long and winding road from chiral effective Lagrangians to nuclear structure
• Low-energy theorems for nucleon-nucleon scattering at unphysical pion masses
• Anthropic considerations in nuclear physics
• Nuclear σ-terms and Scalar-Isoscalar WIMP-Nucleus Interactions from Lattice QCD
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