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A Report

on
An Overview of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Codes By
Rohin Kumar Y
Research Scholar
submitted in the partial fullment
of the course
PHYS401 (Statistical Methods & Computation)
under the guidance of
Prof. Daksh Lohiya
Department of Physics & Astrophysics University of Delhi
Delhi-110007
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Nucleosynthesis 3
2.1 Stellar vs. Primordial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Why Primordial? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Helium Production in Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Thermal History of the Universe 5
3.1 Time Scale vs. Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 Thermal History of Early Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Weak Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1
4 Helium Synthesis 11
4.1 Neutron-proton abundance ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Nucleii Abundances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 BBN Codes 15
5.1 Reaction Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.2 Resonant vs. Non-Resonant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.3 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.3.1 Computational Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.3.2 Model Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6 Results 17
7 Conclusions 17
2
1 Introduction
2 Nucleosynthesis
Nucleosynthesis is the process of formation of nucleus. For any nuclear reaction to take
place a particle of charge has to penetrate the electrostatic repulsion. For example, if
nuclei of charge Z
1
and Z
2
have to come closer to a distance r we need to overcome the
coloumb barrier.
V =
Z
1
Z
2
e
2
r
=
1.44Z
1
Z
2
r(fm)
MeV
The average thermal energy of particles in the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is
kT = 8.62 10
8
T keV
As it evident from the energy needed from this equation we need the temperatures of
the order of 10
6
or higher to cross this barrier for the nuclear reaction to take place. We
know that this order of temperatures exist typically in the stars. Gamow, rst developed
the theory of alpha decay that gives us an idea (The penetration factor is proportional to
exp
_

2Z
1
Z
2
e
2
hv
_
) of the order of cross-section involved in the nuclear reactions. Later
this idea was extended to develop the theory for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.
2.1 Stellar vs. Primordial
There is a remarkable dierence between the nucleosynthesis process that takes place in
stars and the one that happens in the early universe right after the big bang. The time
scale available for nucleosynthesis in stars is typically of the order of billions of years
while for big bang nucleosynthesis the time scale is of the order of minutes. The stellar
nucleosynthesis process is like isothermic process where as primordial nucleosynthesis is
an adiabatic process of rapid cooling. The density in the stars is of the order of 100g/cm
3
where as the density in the big bang conditions is as low as 10
5
. The photon-to-baryon
ratio which is a very important parameter in the chain of nuclear reactions that eects
photo-disassociation in stellar nucleosynthesis is less than 1 photon per baryon but at big
3
bang conditions there are billions of photons available for a single baryon. These major
dierences make the study of primordial nucleosynthesis interesting.
2.2 Why Primordial?
It is experimentally observed that the universe is mostly dominated by two elements
namely Hydrogen(

75%) and Helium(

25%). This implies there is one neutron for every 7


protons (i.e.
n
p

1
7
). We need theoretical explanation to this ratio. One might think
that this He could have been produced in the stars through the chain of nuclear reactions.
We can roughly calculate the order of He produced in stars.
2.3 Helium Production in Stars
Let us assume that a He nucleus is created by fusing 4 protons in the stars (though, one
has to consider the whole network to calculate the exact rate of fusion)
4p
4
He + 2e
+
+ 2
e
The mass dierence for this reaction is 25.7MeV , while the typical kinetic energy
of neutrinos 0.4MeV . Therefore about 25 MeV is released per four protons consumed.
This is the energy that keeps the electron gas in our sun hot: energy is produced in the
solar core at the required rate, just about balancing the energy that is carried o the sun
by the photons emitted from the photosphere. Thus we can estimate the rate of fusion in
the solar core from the measured solar constant.
solar constant 0.033cal/sec/cm
2
distance to earth 1.49 10
13
cm = r therefore
the power output is
(4r
2
)(.033cal/sec/cm
2
) 0.92 10
26
cal/sec 2.4 10
39
MeV/sec
but as 4 protons are consumed for every 25 MeV produced implies 410
38
p/sec consumed
Mass of the sun is 1.1910
57
protons The sun is roughly 5 billion years and burning
at the current power level over that period. Then we can estimate the number of protons
4
consumed over that lifetime
(3.15 10
7
sec/year)(5 10
9
years)(4 10
38
protons/sec) 0.63 10
56
protons
But this is only 0.63/11.9 5.3% of the suns mass. Thus only 5% of protons converted
in 5 b.y. (this He is also locked in the core of our sun, not in places like the inter-stellar
medium where it could be counted by those interested in determining abundances.) And
many protons are not in stars. Thus the tentative conclusion is that stellar burning
contributes to, but cannot account for all, of the
4
He. In fact, looking at the
4
He
abundance as a function of stellar metallicity, stars with poor metallicity presumably
were formed very early. The surfaces of such stars should not know about the
4
He
synthesis in the core, but rather be representative of the star at its birth. So if the surface
shows a large
4
He abundance it has to be primordial rather being formed in the stellar
nucleosynthesis.
3 Thermal History of the Universe
3.1 Time Scale vs. Temperature
Gamow & Ralph Alpher in the 1940s proposed a big bang cosmology where the universe
began as a hot soup, then expanded and cooled. When cooled below about kT 1MeV ,
when e
+
, e annihilation would occur, that soup would consists of the familiar stable
particles like p, n, e , and

s. The basic idea of big bang nucleosynthesis is a nuclear


reaction network that begins with n+p D+ and this must happen within minutes as
neutrons half-life is (
1/2
(n)) 10min So if there is no nucleosynthesis, there would be no
neutrons now. That means neutrons exist in our present day world only because they bind
in nuclei. This forms the most important idea in the theory of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.
Free neutrons have enough energy to decay to protons via beta decay. Bound neutrons do
not because their binding energy makes this decay energetically impossible. So nuclei from
the hot big bang must have freezed out which means the reaction rates have fallen below
the expansion rate of the universe. To understand this further in terms of temperatures
5
at which the dominant reactions and their respective time scales we can use the standard
model of cosmology formalism of expanding universe. Recalling that in the early radiation
dominated universe
a
4

=
4 a
a
= 4
_
8G
3
_
1/2
t =
_
3
32G
_
1/2
t =
_
c
2
48GaT
4
_
1/2
= 1.09secs.
_
T
10
10
K
_
2
T = 10
12
K 10
11
K: 0.01secs
10
10
K: 1.07secs
10
9
K: 3 mins
10
8
: 5.3 hrs
4 10
3
K:10
5
yrs
3.2 Thermal History of Early Universe
Assume that the early universe is hot & consider particles in thermal equilibrium at
that temperature. It so happened that the particles outnumbered anti-particles causing
matter-anti-matter asymmetry at the beginning. Hence, only the particle distributions
are taken into account in calculating nuclear reactions.
T > 10
12
K: The soup consists of ,leptons,mesons,n,p, n, p this era is dicult to study
because of the strong interactions of the quark gluon plasma. It should be noted that the
ination time scale is of the order of 10
33
s and is before the process of baryogenesis.
T 10
12
K: constitution is ,
+
,

,e

,, s and small contamination of n, p & N


n
N
p
T < 10
12
K:
+
,

annihilation happens. All s dissipate at T 10


11
K; , s decouple
from leptons.
Below 10
11
K mass dierence of n, p more protons than neutrons.
5 10
9
K (t 4 sec) e
+
,e

annihilate and heat up photons.


n
p

1
5
.
6
At around 10
9
K ns & ps combine together to give nucleii.
At 4000K electrons captured by nucleii.
The photons there after freely stream and are observed in the microwave frequencies,
forming the isotropic Cosmic Microwave Background.
3.3 Weak Interactions
Consider the equilibrium condition at high temperatures. If at some temperature there
are particles in thermal equilibrium. no. density of i
th
species of particles with momentum
between q & q + dq is
n
i
(q) =
g
i
q
2
dq
h
3
4
_
_
1
exp
_
E
i
(q)
i
kT
_
1
_
_
+ sign for fermions & for bosons. E
i
(q) = (m
2
i
+ q
2
)
1/2

i
= chemical potential, it is additivity & is conserved in all reactions
Therefore

= 0 &
particle
=
anti particle
From
e

+
+

e
+

+ p
e
+ n

+ p

+ n
we can write

e
=

=
n

p
Thus there are 4 conserved intrinsic quantum numbers: charge, baryon number, l
e
(no.
of e

&
e
minus e
+
&
e
), l

(no. of

&

minus
+
&

). Thus we have 4 independent


chemical potentials. There are 4 chemical potentials taken as
p
,
e
,
e
,

are determined
by charge density, baryon number density, electron & muon number density. All a
3
;
n
B
<< n

.
7
Though n

is not known it is a good rst approximation to take all 4 conserved quantities


as 0
For relativistic particles E = q, p =
1
3
, we know that
T
4
T
1
a
Consider now an epoch when kT m

i.e. T < 1.510


12
K. The particle distribution
functions for electron & muon are given by
n
e
(q)dq = n
e
(q)dq =
8
h
3
q
2
dq
_
exp
_
_
q
2
+ m
2
e
kT
_
+ 1
_
1
n

(q)dq = n

(q)dq =
8
h
3
q
2
dq
_
exp
_
_
q
2
+ m
2

kT
_
+ 1
_
1
s are produced/destroyed/scattered in the following reactions
e

+
+

e
+

; e
+
+


e
+

e
+

+ e

;
e
+
+

+ e
+

+
+

e
+ e
+
;


e
+ e

For kT < m

:
Cross-section for all the above reactions is
k

g
2
wk
h
4
(kT)
2
, where
g
wk
= 1.4 10
49
erg cm
3
is weak coupling constant.
All particles are of a speed roughly close to the velocity of light c
n
e

,

_
kT
h
_
3
8
Therefore rate of single scattering & the rate of production per charged lepton is of
the order of

wk
n
l
g
2
wk
h
7
(kT)
5
Total energy density kT
_
kT
h
_
3
.
Expansion rate H =
a
a
=
_
G G
1/2
h
3/2
(kT)
2
when kT > m

On the other hand, when kT < m

n
l
H
G
1/2
h
11
2c
7/2
g
2
wk
(kT)
3

_
T
10
10
K
_
3
no. density of particles with E > m

is reduced by exp(m

/kT)
n
l
H

_
T
10
10
K
_
3
exp
_

10
12
K
T
_
Therefore, all reactions involving s decouple at T 1.3 10
11
K
All reactions not involving s decouple at T 10
10
K.
The -reactions decouple s are still relativistic gas & therefore its eective temperature
T

keeps falling as does the photon temperatures. Thus aT

= aT = aT

= const..
Between 10
12
K > T > 5 10
9
K, the gas consists of , e

,
e
,
e
all relativistic
particles (can add

e
=

=

=

=

=
4
h
3
_

0
q
3
dq
_
exp
_
q
kT
_
+ 1
_
1
=
7
5
30h
3
(kT)
4

7
16
T
4
Where =
8
5
k
4
15h
3
c
3
= 7.56 10
15
erg cm
3
K
4

= T
4
For kT > m
e
, e

are relativistic

e
=
e
+ = 2

=
7
8
T
4
Therefore

total
=
e
+
e
+

+

+
e
+
e
+ +

=
9
2
T
4
9
Can similarly write energy density for general temperatures exactly. General expression
for S is
S =
a
3
T
[
e
+
e
+ + p
e
+ p
e
+ +

+ p

]
We know

+ p

=
4
3
T
4
and

e
=
_
E(q)n(q, T)dq
and
p
e
=
q
2
3E(q)
n(q, T)dq
where E =
_
q
2
+ m
2
and
n(q, T) =
8
h
3
q
2
dq
_
exp
_

q
2
+m
2
kT
_
+ 1
_
q
kT
y,
m
kT
x
S =
4
3
(aT)
3
(m/kT)
Where
(m/kT) 1 +
45
(2)
4
_

0
y
2
dy
_
_
x
2
+ y
2
+
y
2
3

x
2
+y
2
_
exp(
_
x
2
+ y
2
) + 1
T

=
_
4
11
_
1/3
T
_

_
m
e
kT
__
1/3
It is easy to see that below 10
10
K only e

& in equilibrium with specic entropy in


volume a
3
:
s =
a
3
T
[
e
+
e
+ + p
e
+ p
e
+ +

+ p

]
For T > m
e
, p
e

,
=
1
3

,
, electrons & positrons being relativistic
s =
4
3
a
3
T
[
e
+
e
+ +

] =
11
3
(aT)
3
10
Below 5 10
9
K, e
+
e

annihilate, eventually leaving only photons in equilibrium.


s =
4
3
a
3
T

=
4
3
(aT)
3
By conservation of entropy, one must have increase of aT by a factor
_
11
4
_
1/3
(2.75)
1/3
But s do not heat up as weak interactions are out of equilibrium and therefore aT

is
unchanged.
aT

aT
for T < 10
9
K
_
4
11
_
1/3
(1.401)
1
Therefore, T

is 40% larger. So at present T

2.7K T

1.9K.
The density of gas gets contribution from s and s so:

R
( +

s) =
e
+
e
+

+

+

= aT
4

+
7
4
aT
4

=
_
1 +
7
4
_
4
11
_
4/3
_
aT
4

1.45T
4

Now the energy density of non-relativistic matter= m


N
n
N
a
3
T
3

=m
N
n
N
n
N
= n
N
0
_
T

0
_
3
Therefore m
N
n
N
=
R
at T
C
=
m
N
n
N
0
1.45T
3

0
= 4200K
_
m
N
n
N
0
10
30
g/cm
3
_
Estimate of current matter density vary from m
N
n
N
0
2 10
29
to 3 10
31
g/cm
3
Therefore T
C
lies between 84,000K to 1200K
T
Recombination
4000K
4 Helium Synthesis
4.1 Neutron-proton abundance ratio
One can roughly understand the neutron to proton ratio falling as the universe cools
down by considering them distributed as Maxwell-Boltzmann gases interacting with each
11
other. The free neutron decay reaction n p +e

+
e
takes place as the mass dierence
between n & p is m = 1.294MeV we can write
n
n
n
p
= exp((m
n
m
p
)/kT) = exp(m/kT)
Nucleons weakly interact by the following reactions:
n +
e
p + e

n + e
+
p +
e
n p + e

+
e
Recall the lepton number density expressions:
n
e
(p)dp =
8
h
3
p
2
dp
1
exp
_
Ee
kT

+ 1
n
,
(p)dp =
4
h
3
p
2
dp
1
exp
_
E
kT

+ 1
Where E
e
=
_
p
2
+ m
2
e
& E

= p
Rates of reactions are given by the V-A theory. Paulis principle implies that the phase
space availability is suppressed by the number of lled states.
1
_
exp
_
E
e
kT
_
+ 1
_
1
=
_
1 + e
Ee/kT

1
1
_
exp
_
E

kT
_
+ 1
_
1
=
_
1 + e
E/kT

1
The rates of the above weak interactions are evaluated in a standard manner.
Consider for example
n + p + e

Rate of this process per nucleon is


(n + p + e

) = A
_
v
e
E
2
e
p
2

dp

[e
E/kT
+ 1]
(E
e
E

Q)
[e
Ee/kT
+ 1]
with A =
d
2
wk
2
3
h
7
_
p
2
e
dp
e

_
p
e
EdE(p
e
= v
e
E) gives
_
v
e
E
2
e
.
Overall conservation of Energy is taken care by
_
[E
e
E

Q].
12
Adding up all the processes in which n goes to p, and then p goes to n, one nds numer-
ically that all p n reaction decouples at T 10
10
K
For T > 10
10
K
(p n)
(n p)
= exp
_
Q
kT
_
with Q = m
n
m
p
For equilibrium, the principles of detailed balance implies
(n p) neutron density = (p n) proton density
n
n
n
p
=
(p n)
(n p)
= exp
_
Q
KT
_
X
n
=
n
n
n
n
+ n
p
=
_
1 + e
Q/kT

1
4.2 Nucleii Abundances
n
i
=
_
n
i
(q)dq =
4g
i
h
3
_
q
2
dq
exp
_
E
i
(q)
i
kT
_
1
For every non-relativistic nuclei, (very good approximation), the 1 is ignorable
E
i
(q) m
i
+
q
2
2m
i
n
i
=
4g
i
h
3
exp
_

i
m
i
kT
__

0
q
2
dqexp
_
q
2
2m
i
kT
_
= g
i
_
2m
i
kT
h
2
_
3/2
exp
_

i
m
i
kT
_
Let there be a nucleus i of Z
i
ps & (A
i
Z
i
) ns in equilibrium

i
= Z
i

p
+ (A
i
Z
i
)
n
X
i
=
n
i
A
i
n
N
; X
n
=
n
n
n
N
; X
p
=
n
p
n
N
Where n
N
= total no. density of nucleons (bound or free)
n
N
= n
N
0
_
a
0
a
_
3
=

N
0
m
N
_
a
0
a
_
3
13
The expressions for n
p
, n
n
, n
i
are
n
p
= 2
_
2m
p
kT
h
2
_
3/2
exp
_

p
m
p
kT
_
n
n
= 2
_
2m
n
kT
h
2
_
3/2
exp
_

n
m
n
kT
_
n
i
= g
A
_
2m
A
kT
h
2
_
3/2
exp
_

i
m
i
kT
_
From
exp (
i
/kT) = exp [(Z
i
m
p
+ (A
i
Z
i
)m
n
)/kT]
n
Z
p
n
AZ
n
_
2
m
N
kT
_
3A/2
2
A
exp [(Z
i
m
p
+ (A
i
Z
i
)m
n
)/kT]
but B
i
= Z
i
m
p
+ (A
i
Z
i
)m
n
m
A
n
A
i
= g
A
A
3/2
2
A
_
2
m
N
kT
_
3(A1)/2
n
Z
i
p
n
A
i
Z
n
exp(B
A
/T)
For closure density
c
=
3H
2
8G
for H = h 100km/sec/Mpc &
B
=
B

c
= 2.68 10
8

B
h
2
n
B
=

B

c
m
N
and n

=
2(3)

3
_
kT
c h
_
3
X
i
=
n
A
i
n
N
= g
A
A
3/2
2
A
_
2
m
N
kT
_
3(A1)/2
X
Z
i
p
X
A
i
Z
i
n
(n
N
)
A
i
1
exp[B
A
/T]
Next use expression for n

to get
X
i
= g
i
_
(3)
A1

(1A)/2
2
(3A5)/2

A
5/2
_
kT
m
n
_
3(A1)/2

A1
X
Z
p
X
AZ
n
exp [B
i
/kT]
where =
n
N
n

g
i
= 2, A = 2, B
D
= 2.2MeV
For Deuterium,
X
D
= g
i
O(1)2
(3A5)/2
A
5/2
14
X
D
16
_
kT
m
n
_
3/2
exp
_
B
D
T
_
X
n
X
p
For X
D
1 for X
n
,X
p
O(1)
0
3
2
(A 1) ln
_
kT
m
N
_
+ (A 1) ln +
B
D
T

B
D
T(A 1)
= ln(
1
) + 1.5 ln
_
m
N
kT
_
T =
B/(A 1)
ln(
1
) + 1.5 ln(m
N
/kT)
For 10
9
we get T
D
0.07MeV
At this temperature, X
D
1. However, Deuterium never gets to such high values as it
gets involved in a nuclear reaction network. Binding Energy of
2
H 2.2MeV
p + n
2
H +
2
H + n
3
H +
3
H + p
4
He +
2
H + p
3
He +
3
He + n
4
He +
3
He +
2
H
4
He + p
etc The rst reaction in the above chain is reversible till temperature is below 10
9
K after
which there exits too few with large enough energy to dissipate
2
H. Subsequently
remaining neutrons land up as
4
He once the Deuterium starts getting consumed.
5 BBN Codes
Big bang nucleosynthesis process consists of a chain of more than 60 reactions considering
26 nucleides. The network of reactions is shown in Figure .This has to be simulated
in a computer numerically to nd out the nuclei abundances. The rst and the most
15
popular of the nucleosynthesis codes is the Kawano code(NUC123) written in Fortran 77
based on the paper by Wagnorr. It is extremely user-friendly with menu driven interface.
The parameters for simulation as well as the physical parameters can be set or changed
manually to run the code for dierent cases of interest. There are many other codes like
AlterBBN (written in C) however, the underlying algorithm remains the same.
5.1 Reaction Rates
The total rate of change of abundance of nucleus i is given by the following rst-order
dierential equation
1
A
i
dX
i
dt
=

j
X
j
A
j

k
(j)

jk
X
j
A
j
X
k
A
k
[jk]

jkl
X
j
A
j
X
k
A
k
X
l
A
l
[jkl]
Here
k
is the reaction rate of the kth species. Similarly [jk] is the rate of reaction between
jth and kth species calculated from their reactions thermally averaged cross-section that
takes care of the velocity distribution of the interacting nuclei at a given temperature.
For all the reactions shown in the Figure there are these coupled dierential equations
to be solved. The whole network of reactions is solved by two-step Runge-Kutta method
with evolving time/temperature parameter.
5.2 Resonant vs. Non-Resonant
Nuclear reaction rates are calculated for both resonant and non-resonant reactions. It is
very important to consider the resonant reaction rates as their cross-section values tend
to be higher by the orders of magnitude in comparison to non-resonant reactions. They
are important when the energy is higher than the most eective energy for thermonuclear
reactions. Hence, relevant nuclear models are taken into account in the nucleosynthesis
codes to account for both these types of reactions.
16
5.3 Simulation Parameters
As NUC123 is menu-driven application, one can set the parameters in the code by choosing
relevent options in the menu. There are Computational parameters as well as the model
parameters. Both types of parameters are briey explained below.
5.3.1 Computational Parameters
As the coupled dierential equations in Kawano code are solved using Runge-Kutta
method, one can change the initial time step, time-step limiting constant etc. by choosing
the concerned option in the menu to solve the equations with desired accuracy.
We can also choose to set the initial and nal temperatures of the simulation as multiples
of 10
9
K. The default run is set to 10
11
K to 10
7
K.
To avoid singularities in the coupled dierential equations matrix, we need to take a
non-zero initial abundances of the nucleii and it also serves as the minimum amount of
abundance below which the nucleii can be ignored.
5.3.2 Model Parameters
In the model parameters submenu, one can play God by choosing various parameters
such as gravitational constant, neutron lifetime, no. of neutrino species, nal Baryon-to-
photon ratio, cosmological constant and neutrino degeneracies. The default values are set
to the known standard values. Most of these parameters need not be changed. However,
if one wants to check the nucleosynthesis code for alternative models, one has to make
modications in the relevant parts of the code. One can also vary the model parameters
linearly and do multiple runs.
6 Results
7 Conclusions
17

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