Neutrinos and Primordial Nucleosynthesis
arXiv:astro-ph/0412255 · doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2005.04.038
Abstract
The importance of the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) as a unique tool for studying neutrino properties is discussed, and the recent steps towards a self-consistent and robust handling of the weak reaction decoupling from the thermal bath as well as of the neutrino reheating following the e+e- annihilation are summarized. We also emphasize the important role of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy in providing an accurate and independent determination of the baryon density parameter omegab. The BBN is presently a powerful parameter-free theory that can test the standard scenario of the neutrino decoupling in the early Universe. Moreover it can constrain new physics in the neutrino sector. The perspectives for improvements in the next years are outlined.
Talk given by G. Mangano at NOW2004, Conca Specchiulla, Otranto Italy, september 2004. To appear in the Proceedings of the Workshop
References in corpus (6)
- First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
- Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (in "The Review of Particle Properties" 2004)
- The cosmological baryon density from the deuterium to hydrogen ratio towards QSO absorption systems: D/H towards Q1243+3047
- Cosmological bounds on neutrino degeneracy improved by flavor oscillations
- A precision calculation of the effective number of cosmological neutrinos
- Present status of primordial nucleosynthesis after WMAP: results from a new BBN code