Varying physical constants and the lithium problem

Abstract

We have used the recently published varying physical constants (VPC) approach to resolve the primordial lithium abundance problem. The value of the ratio of $7Li$ to hydrogen $7Li/H=1.400(\pm 0.023)\times 10^{-10}$ we have calculated using this approach is about four times lower than that estimated using the standard lambda cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological model, and is consistent with the most agreed observational value of $1.6(\pm 0.3)\times 10^{-10}$. In the VPC approach Einstein equations are modified to include the variation of the speed of light $c$, gravitational constant $G$ and cosmological constant $\Lambda$ using the Einstein-Hilbert action. Application of this approach to cosmology naturally leads to the variation of the Plank constant $\hslash$ and the Boltzmann constant $k_B$ as well. They approach fixed values at the scale factor $a\ll 1$: $c=c_0/e$, $G=G_0/e^3$, $\hslash ={\hslash }_0/e$ and $k_B=k_{B0}/e^{5/4}$, where $e$ is the Euler's number (=2.7183). Since the VPC cosmology reduces to the same form as the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology at very small scale factors, we could use an existing Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) code AlterBBN with the above changes to calculate the light element abundances under the VPC cosmology. Among other abundances we have calculated at baryon to photon ratio $\eta =6.1\times 10^{-10}$ are: $4He/H=0.2478(\pm 0.041)$, $D/H=2.453(\pm 0.041)\times 10^{-5}$ and $3He/H=2.940(\pm 0.049)\times 10^{-5}$.

8 pages, 2 figures, thoroughly revised as published with typos corrected. Critical comments welcomed

References in corpus (9)

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• Non-extensive Statistics Solution to the Cosmological Lithium Problem
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• Cosmology with relativistically varying physical constants
• Roles of ${}^7$Be$(n,p{)}^7$Li resonances in big bang nucleosynthesis with time-dependent quark mass and Li reduction by a heavy quark mass
• Chemical separation of primordial Li${}^{+}$ during structure formation caused by nanogauss magnetic field

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• Constraining Coupling Constants' Variation with Supernovae, Quasars, and GRBs
• Constraints on running vacuum models with the baryon-to-photon ratio
• Dilaton-induced variations in Planck constant and speed of light: An alternative to Dark Energy
• A mechanism to generate varying speed of light via Higgs-dilaton coupling: Theory and cosmological applications
• New analysis of SNeIa Pantheon Catalog: Variable speed of light as an alternative to dark energy
• Constraining Co-Varying Coupling Constants from Globular Cluster Age