Late-time Entropy Production from Scalar Decay and Neutrino Decoupling
arXiv:hep-ph/0304291
Abstract
Late-time entropy production from scalar decay arises in scenarios like thermal inflation, proposed to dilute long-lived, massive fields like the gravitino and the moduli. The scalar decay may continue into Mev-scale temperatures and affect BB nucleosynthesis. The effect of such entropy production on electron neutrino decoupling is studied. A lower bound of about 10^(-22) Gev is estimated for the scalar decay constant, such that, for higher values of the decay constant, standard electron neutrino decoupling is unaffected.
arXiv comment7 pages, Latex, no figures, one reference added