Constraining big bang lithium production with recent solar neutrino data

Takács, Marcell Péter and Bemmerer, D. and Szücs, Tamás and Zuber, K. (2015) Constraining big bang lithium production with recent solar neutrino data. PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 91 (12). ISSN 2470-0010

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Abstract

The 3He(α, γ)7Be reaction affects not only the production of 7Li in Big Bang nucleosynthesis, butalso the fluxes of 7Be and 8B neutrinos from the Sun. This double role is exploited here to constrainthe former by the latter. A number of recent experiments on 3He(α, γ)7Be provide precise crosssection data at E = 0.5-1.0 MeV center-of-mass energy. However, there is a scarcity of precise dataat Big Bang energies, 0.1-0.5 MeV, and below. This problem can be alleviated, based on preciselycalibrated 7Be and 8B neutrino fluxes from the Sun that are now available, assuming the neutrinoflavour oscillation framework to be correct. These fluxes and the standard solar model are usedhere to determine the 3He(α, γ)7Be astrophysical S-factor at the solar Gamow peak, Sν34(23+6−5 keV)= 0.548±0.054 keV b. This new data point is then included in a re-evaluation of the 3He(α, γ)7BeS-factor at Big Bang energies, following an approach recently developed for this reaction in thecontext of solar fusion studies. The re-evaluated S-factor curve is then used to re-determine the3He(α, γ)7Be thermonuclear reaction rate at Big Bang energies. The predicted primordial lithiumabundance is 7Li/H = 5.0 ×10−10, far higher than the Spite plateau.

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