A light particle solution to the cosmic lithium problem

Abstract

We point out that the cosmological abundance of ${}^7$Li can be reduced down to observed values if during its formation Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is modified by the presence of light electrically neutral particles $X$ that have substantial interactions with nucleons. We find that the lithium problem can be solved without affecting the precisely measured abundances of deuterium and helium if the following conditions are satisfied: the mass and lifetimes of such particles are bounded by $1.6\mathrm{MeV}\le m_X\le 20\mathrm{MeV}$ and $\mathrm{few}100\mathrm{s}\lesssim {\tau }_X\lesssim 10^4\mathrm{s}$, and the abundance times the absorption cross section by either deuterium or ${}^7$Be are comparable to the Hubble rate, $n_X{\sigma }_{\mathrm{abs}}v\sim H$, at the time of ${}^7$Be formation. We include $X$-initiated reactions into the primordial nucleosynthesis framework, observe that it leads to a substantial reduction of the freeze-out abundances of ${}^7$Li+${}^7$Be, and find specific model realizations of this scenario. Concentrating on the axion-like-particle case, $X=a$, we show that all these conditions can be satisifed if the coupling to $d$-quarks is in the range of $f_d^{-1}\sim {\mathrm{TeV}}^{-1}$, which can be probed at intensity frontier experiments.

5 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor improvements, matches published version

References in corpus (14)

• Secluded WIMP Dark Matter
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Hadronically and Electromagnetically Decaying Relic Neutral Particles
• Cores in Dwarf Galaxies from Dark Matter with a Yukawa Potential
• Bosonic super-WIMPs as keV-scale dark matter
• A probable stellar solution to the cosmological lithium discrepancy
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as a Probe of New Physics
• New weakly-coupled forces hidden in low-energy QCD
• Evaluation of Modern 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be Data
• Primordial Lithium Abundance in Catalyzed Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Metastable GeV-scale particles as a solution to the cosmological lithium problem
• Modified big bang nucleosynthesis with non-standard neutron sources
• A loophole to the universal photon spectrum in electromagnetic cascades: application to the "cosmological lithium problem"
• Revised Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with long-lived negatively charged massive particles: updated recombination rates, primordial 9Be nucleosynthesis, and impact of new 6Li limits
• General limit on the relation between abundances of D and ${}^7$Li in big bang nucleosynthesis with nucleon injections

Cited by in corpus (28)

• Constraints on Primordial Black Holes
• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• Precision big bang nucleosynthesis with improved Helium-4 predictions
• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• The First Three Seconds: a Review of Possible Expansion Histories of the Early Universe
• Particle Physics Models for the 17 MeV Anomaly in Beryllium Nuclear Decays
• The 7Be(n,alpha)4He reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: measurement of the cross section in a wide energy range at n_TOF (CERN)
• Non-extensive Statistics Solution to the Cosmological Lithium Problem
• Probing Light Dark Matter with a Hadrophilic Scalar Mediator
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: Galactic evolution of lithium from iDR6
• Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis
• Dark Sector Equilibration During Nucleosynthesis
• Protophobic Light Vector Boson as a Mediator to the Dark Sector
• Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies
• Probing Dark Matter freeze-in with long-lived particle signatures: MATHUSLA, HL-LHC and FCC-hh
• Breaking Be: a sterile neutrino solution to the cosmological lithium problem
• Impacts of Hawking Radiation from Primordial Black Holes in Critical Collapse Model on the Light Element Abundances
• Atomic Physics Constraints on the X Boson
• Primordial nucleosynthesis with varying fundamental constants: Degeneracies with cosmological parameters
• Impact of the ${}^7$Be($\alpha ,\gamma$)${}^{11}$C reaction on the primordial abundance of ${}^7$Li
• Protostellar accretion in low mass metal poor stars and the cosmological lithium problem
• Light Dark Matter: A Common Solution to the Lithium and $H_0$ Problems
• Theoretical predictions of surface light element abundances in protostellar and pre-Main Sequence phase
• New determination of proton spectroscopic factors and reduced widths for ${}^8$Be states in the $16.5-18.0$ MeV excitation energy region via the study of the ${}^7$Li(${}^3$He,d)${}^8$Be transfer reaction at E${}_{lab}$ $=20$ MeV
• Impact of Neutrino Properties and Dark Matter on the Primordial Lithium Production
• Non-Thermal Cosmic Rays During Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to Solve the Lithium Problem
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis
• Inside the Black Box of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: A Comprehensive Sensitivity Atlas for the Precision Era