Measurements of Nuclear Reactions that Create and Destroy Li and Be during BBN. (arXiv:2002.05280v1 [astro-ph.CO])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Davids_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">Barry Davids</a>
I review measurements of the most important reactions involved in the
creation and destruction of Li and Be during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) as
well as their uncertainties and the relative contributions they make to the
uncertainty in the primordial $^7$Li abundance ($^7$Li/H). Examining the
sensitivity of calculated $^7$Li/H to these reactions as predicted by different
BBN codes I find no significant differences. I compare my calculation of
primordial $^7$Li/H to some recently published values and conclude that in the
absence of a major undetected experimental blunder, nuclear physics
uncertainties cannot account for the cosmological Li problem. With an estimated
13% uncertainty in the calculated abundance, the discrepancy with observation
amounts to some $4.6sigma$.
I review measurements of the most important reactions involved in the
creation and destruction of Li and Be during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) as
well as their uncertainties and the relative contributions they make to the
uncertainty in the primordial $^7$Li abundance ($^7$Li/H). Examining the
sensitivity of calculated $^7$Li/H to these reactions as predicted by different
BBN codes I find no significant differences. I compare my calculation of
primordial $^7$Li/H to some recently published values and conclude that in the
absence of a major undetected experimental blunder, nuclear physics
uncertainties cannot account for the cosmological Li problem. With an estimated
13% uncertainty in the calculated abundance, the discrepancy with observation
amounts to some $4.6sigma$.
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