Neutrino energy transport in weak decoupling and big bang nucleosynthesis
Abstract
In this study, we calculate the evolution of the early universe through the epochs of weak decoupling, weak freeze-out and big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) by simultaneously coupling a full strong, electromagnetic, and weak nuclear reaction network with a multienergy group Boltzmann neutrino energy transport scheme. The modular structure of our code provides the ability to dissect the relative contributions of each process responsible for evolving the dynamics of the early universe in the absence of neutrino flavor oscillations. Such an approach allows a detailed accounting of the evolution of the νe, ν¯e, νμ, ν¯μ, ντ, ν¯τ energy distribution functions alongside and self-consistently with the nuclear reactions and entropy/heat generation and flow between the neutrino and photon/electron/positron/baryon plasma components. This calculation reveals nonlinear feedback in the time evolution of neutrino distribution functions and plasma thermodynamic conditions (e.g., electron-positron pair densities), with implications for the phasing between scale factor and plasma temperature; the neutron-to-proton ratio; light-element abundance histories; and the cosmological parameter Neff. We find that our approach of following the time development of neutrino spectral distortions and concomitant entropy production and extraction from the plasma results in changes in the computed value of the BBN deuterium yield. For example, for particularmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States); Univ. of San Diego, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States); North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1291294
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1249651
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-15-29163
Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396; 257842
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 93; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Atomic and Nuclear Physics; Astronomy and Astrophysics
Citation Formats
Grohs, Evan Bradley, Paris, Mark W., Kishimoto, Chad T., Fuller, George M., and Vlasenko, Alexey. Neutrino energy transport in weak decoupling and big bang nucleosynthesis. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.083522.
Grohs, Evan Bradley, Paris, Mark W., Kishimoto, Chad T., Fuller, George M., & Vlasenko, Alexey. Neutrino energy transport in weak decoupling and big bang nucleosynthesis. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.083522
Grohs, Evan Bradley, Paris, Mark W., Kishimoto, Chad T., Fuller, George M., and Vlasenko, Alexey. Thu .
"Neutrino energy transport in weak decoupling and big bang nucleosynthesis". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.083522. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1291294.
@article{osti_1291294,
title = {Neutrino energy transport in weak decoupling and big bang nucleosynthesis},
author = {Grohs, Evan Bradley and Paris, Mark W. and Kishimoto, Chad T. and Fuller, George M. and Vlasenko, Alexey},
abstractNote = {In this study, we calculate the evolution of the early universe through the epochs of weak decoupling, weak freeze-out and big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) by simultaneously coupling a full strong, electromagnetic, and weak nuclear reaction network with a multienergy group Boltzmann neutrino energy transport scheme. The modular structure of our code provides the ability to dissect the relative contributions of each process responsible for evolving the dynamics of the early universe in the absence of neutrino flavor oscillations. Such an approach allows a detailed accounting of the evolution of the νe, ν¯e, νμ, ν¯μ, ντ, ν¯τ energy distribution functions alongside and self-consistently with the nuclear reactions and entropy/heat generation and flow between the neutrino and photon/electron/positron/baryon plasma components. This calculation reveals nonlinear feedback in the time evolution of neutrino distribution functions and plasma thermodynamic conditions (e.g., electron-positron pair densities), with implications for the phasing between scale factor and plasma temperature; the neutron-to-proton ratio; light-element abundance histories; and the cosmological parameter Neff. We find that our approach of following the time development of neutrino spectral distortions and concomitant entropy production and extraction from the plasma results in changes in the computed value of the BBN deuterium yield. For example, for particular implementations of quantum corrections in plasma thermodynamics, our calculations show a 0.4% increase in deuterium. These changes are potentially significant in the context of anticipated improvements in observational and nuclear physics uncertainties.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.93.083522},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 8,
volume = 93,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Primordial nucleosynthesis including radiative, Coulomb, and finite-temperature corrections to weak rates
journal, November 1982
- Dicus, Duane A.; Kolb, Edward W.; Gleeson, A. M.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 26, Issue 10
Finite temperature radiative corrections to neutron decay and related processes
journal, December 1982
- Cambier, Jean-Luc; Primack, Joel R.; Sher, Marc
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 209, Issue 2
Relaxation time of neutrinos in the early universe
journal, January 1989
- Herrera, M. A.; Hacyan, S.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 336
Effect of neutrino heating in the early Universe on neutrino decoupling temperatures and nucleosynthesis
journal, July 1991
- Rana, N. C.; Mitra, Banashree
- Physical Review D, Vol. 44, Issue 2
Nonequilibrium neutrino statistical mechanics in the expanding Universe
journal, October 1992
- Dodelson, Scott; Turner, Michael S.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 46, Issue 8
Neutrino decoupling in the early Universe
journal, August 1995
- Hannestad, Steen; Madsen, Jes
- Physical Review D, Vol. 52, Issue 4
Non-equilibrium corrections to the spectra of massless neutrinos in the early universe
journal, October 1997
- Dolgov, A. D.; Hansen, S. H.; Semikoz, D. V.
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 503, Issue 1-2
Cosmological Neutrino Background Revisited
journal, December 1998
- Gnedin, Nickolay Y.; Gnedin, Oleg Y.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 509, Issue 1
Non-equilibrium corrections to the spectra of massless neutrinos in the early universe
journal, March 1999
- Dolgov, A. D.; Hansen, S. H.; Semikoz, D. V.
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 543, Issue 1-2
Precision prediction for the big-bang abundance of primordial
journal, March 1999
- Lopez, Robert E.; Turner, Michael S.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 59, Issue 10
Non equilibrium spectra of degenerate relic neutrinos
journal, December 2000
- Esposito, S.; Miele, G.; Pastor, S.
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 590, Issue 3
A precision calculation of the effective number of cosmological neutrinos
journal, May 2002
- Mangano, G.; Miele, G.; Pastor, S.
- Physics Letters B, Vol. 534, Issue 1-4
Relic neutrino decoupling including flavour oscillations
journal, November 2005
- Mangano, Gianpiero; Miele, Gennaro; Pastor, Sergio
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 729, Issue 1-2
Relic neutrino freeze-out: Dependence on natural constants
journal, January 2015
- Birrell, Jeremiah; Yang, Cheng Tao; Rafelski, Johann
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 890
Neutrino physics from the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure
journal, March 2015
- Abazajian, K. N.; Arnold, K.; Austermann, J.
- Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 63
BBN and the CMB constrain neutrino coupled light WIMPs
journal, April 2015
- Nollett, Kenneth M.; Steigman, Gary
- Physical Review D, Vol. 91, Issue 8
Majorana neutrino magnetic moment and neutrino decoupling in big bang nucleosynthesis
journal, December 2015
- Vassh, N.; Grohs, E.; Balantekin, A. B.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 92, Issue 12
Neutrino quantum kinetics
journal, May 2014
- Vlasenko, Alexey; Fuller, George M.; Cirigliano, Vincenzo
- Physical Review D, Vol. 89, Issue 10
Neutrino oscillations in the early universe
journal, February 1991
- Barbieri, R.; Dolgov, A.
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 349, Issue 3
Implications of Majorana neutrino transition magnetic moments for neutrino signals from supernovae
journal, April 1992
- Akhmedov, E. Kh.; Berezhiani, Z. G.
- Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 373, Issue 2
Neutrino flavor conversion in a supernova core
journal, March 1993
- Raffelt, G.; Sigl, G.
- Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 1, Issue 2
Generalized Boltzmann formalism for oscillating neutrinos
journal, May 2005
- Strack, P.; Burrows, A.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 71, Issue 9
Neutrino–neutrino interactions and flavour mixing in dense matter
journal, November 2006
- Balantekin, A. B.; Pehlivan, Y.
- Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 34, Issue 1
Extended evolution equations for neutrino propagation in astrophysical and cosmological environments
journal, June 2013
- Volpe, Cristina; Väänänen, Daavid; Espinoza, Catalina
- Physical Review D, Vol. 87, Issue 11
Neutrinos in cosmology and astrophysics
journal, July 2013
- Balantekin, A. B.; Fuller, G. M.
- Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 71
Transition magnetic moments and collective neutrino oscillations: three-flavor effects and detectability
journal, April 2013
- Gouvêa, André de; Shalgar, Shashank
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2013, Issue 04
Neutrino-antineutrino correlations in dense anisotropic media
journal, December 2014
- Serreau, Julien; Volpe, Cristina
- Physical Review D, Vol. 90, Issue 12
A new spin on neutrino quantum kinetics
journal, July 2015
- Cirigliano, Vincenzo; Fuller, George M.; Vlasenko, Alexey
- Physics Letters B, Vol. 747
Synthesis of the Elements Within Objects Exploding from Very High Temperatures
journal, June 1969
- Wagoner, Robert V.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 18
Experimental, computational, and observational analysis of primordial nucleosynthesis
journal, March 1993
- Smith, Michael S.; Kawano, Lawrence H.; Malaney, Robert A.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 85
New nuclear physics for big bang nucleosynthesis
journal, November 2010
- Boyd, Richard N.; Brune, Carl R.; Fuller, George M.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 82, Issue 10
Probing neutrino physics with a self-consistent treatment of the weak decoupling, nucleosynthesis, and photon decoupling epochs
journal, May 2015
- Grohs, E.; Fuller, George M.; Kishimoto, Chad T.
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 05
Neutrino Opacities at High Temperatures and Densities
journal, October 1975
- Tubbs, David L.; Schramm, David N.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 201
Neutrino-neutrino scattering and supernovae
journal, August 1976
- Flowers, E. G.; Sutherland, P. G.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 208
ALGORITHM 655: IQPACK: FORTRAN subroutines for the weights of interpolatory quadratures
journal, December 1987
- Elhay, Sylvan; Kautsky, Jaroslav
- ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, Vol. 13, Issue 4
Astrophysical applications of quantum corrections to the equation of state of a plasma
journal, January 1994
- Heckler, Andrew F.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 49, Issue 2
Finite temperature effects on the neutrino decoupling in the early Universe
journal, October 1997
- Fornengo, N.; Kim, C. W.; Song, J.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 56, Issue 8
Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
journal, October 2014
- Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Armitage-Caplan, C.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 571
On the Synthesis of Elements at Very High Temperatures
journal, April 1967
- Wagoner, Robert V.; Fowler, William A.; Hoyle, F.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 148
Stellar weak-interaction rates for sd-shell nuclei. I - Nuclear matrix element systematics with application to Al-26 and selected nuclei of importance to the supernova problem
journal, February 1980
- Fuller, G. M.; Fowler, W. A.; Newman, M. J.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 42
Weak interaction rate Coulomb corrections in big bang nucleosynthesis
journal, March 2010
- Smith, Christel J.; Fuller, George M.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 81, Issue 6
PArthENoPE: Public algorithm evaluating the nucleosynthesis of primordial elements
journal, June 2008
- Pisanti, O.; Cirillo, A.; Esposito, S.
- Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 178, Issue 12
BBN and the CMB constrain light, electromagnetically coupled WIMPs
journal, April 2014
- Nollett, Kenneth M.; Steigman, Gary
- Physical Review D, Vol. 89, Issue 8
Implication of the Proton-Deuteron Radiative Capture for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
journal, March 2016
- Marcucci, L. E.; Mangano, G.; Kievsky, A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 10
Deuterium and the baryonic density of the universe
journal, August 2000
- Tytler, David; O'Meara, John M.; Suzuki, Nao
- Physics Reports, Vol. 333-334
The Cosmological Baryon Density from the Deuterium‐to‐Hydrogen Ratio in QSO Absorption Systems: D/H toward Q1243+3047
journal, November 2003
- Kirkman, David; Tytler, David; Suzuki, Nao
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 149, Issue 1
A new, precise measurement of the primordial abundance of deuterium: The primordial abundance of deuterium
journal, August 2012
- Pettini, Max; Cooke, Ryan
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 425, Issue 4
Precision Measures of the Primordial Abundance of Deuterium
journal, January 2014
- Cooke, Ryan J.; Pettini, Max; Jorgenson, Regina A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 781, Issue 1
Big bang nucleosynthesis with independent neutrino distribution functions
journal, May 2009
- Smith, Christel J.; Fuller, George M.; Smith, Michael S.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 79, Issue 10
Dark radiation from particle decays during big bang nucleosynthesis
journal, February 2012
- Menestrina, Justin L.; Scherrer, Robert J.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 85, Issue 4
Inhomogeneous primordial nucleosynthesis: Coupled nuclear reactions and hydrodynamic dissipation processes
journal, March 1994
- Jedamzik, Karsten; Fuller, George M.; Mathews, Grant J.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 423
Primordial Lithium and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
journal, February 2000
- Ryan, Sean G.; Beers, Timothy C.; Olive, Keith A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 530, Issue 2
Cosmological lepton asymmetry, primordial nucleosynthesis and sterile neutrinos
journal, September 2005
- Abazajian, Kevork; Bell, Nicole F.; Fuller, George M.
- Physical Review D, Vol. 72, Issue 6
Neutrino oscillations in the early universe
journal, May 2001
- Kirilova, D.; Chizhov, M.
- Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplements, Vol. 100, Issue 1-3
The baryon density of the Universe from an improved rate of deuterium burning
journal, November 2020
- Mossa, V.; Stöckel, K.; Cavanna, F.
- Nature, Vol. 587, Issue 7833
Cosmological lepton asymmetry, primordial nucleosynthesis, and sterile neutrinos
text, January 2005
- Abazajian, Kevork; Bell, Nicole F.; Fuller, George M.
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with Independent Neutrino Distribution Functions
text, January 2008
- Smith, Christel J.; Fuller, George M.; Smith, Michael S.
- arXiv
New Nuclear Physics for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
text, January 2010
- Boyd, Richard N.; Brune, Carl R.; Fuller, George M.
- arXiv
Dark Radiation from Particle Decays during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
text, January 2011
- Menestrina, Justin L.; Scherrer, Robert J.
- arXiv
Extended evolution equations for neutrino propagation in astrophysical and cosmological environments
text, January 2013
- Volpe, Cristina; Väänänen, Daavid; Espinoza, Catalina
- arXiv
Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
text, January 2013
- Collaboration, Planck; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.
- arXiv
Neutrino Quantum Kinetics
text, January 2013
- Vlasenko, Alexey; Fuller, George M.; Cirigliano, Vincenzo
- arXiv
Neutrino Physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure
text, January 2013
- Abazajian, K. N.; Arnold, K.; Austermann, J.
- arXiv
Relic Neutrino Freeze-out: Dependence on Natural Constants
text, January 2014
- Birrell, Jeremiah; Yang, Cheng-Tao; Rafelski, Johann
- arXiv
A New Spin on Neutrino Quantum Kinetics
preprint, January 2014
- Cirigliano, Vincenzo; Fuller, George M.; Vlasenko, Alexey
- arXiv
Neutrino-antineutrino correlations in dense anisotropic media
text, January 2014
- Serreau, Julien; Volpe, Cristina
- arXiv
A precision calculation of the effective number of cosmological neutrinos
text, January 2001
- Mangano, G.; Miele, G.; Pastor, S.
- arXiv
The cosmological baryon density from the deuterium to hydrogen ratio towards QSO absorption systems: D/H towards Q1243+3047
text, January 2003
- Kirkman, David; Tytler, David; Suzuki, Nao
- arXiv
Neutrino-Neutrino Interactions and Flavor Mixing in Dense Matter
text, January 2006
- Balantekin, A. B.; Pehlivan, Y.
- arXiv
Cosmological Neutrino Background Revisited
text, January 1997
- Gnedin, Nickolay Y.; Gnedin, Oleg Y.
- arXiv
Primordial Lithium and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
text, January 1999
- Ryan, S. G.; Beers, T. C.; Olive, K. A.
- arXiv
Finite temperature effects on the neutrino decoupling in the early Universe
text, January 1997
- Fornengo, N.; Kim, C. W.; Song, J.
- arXiv
Works referencing / citing this record:
Relic neutrino decoupling with flavour oscillations revisited
journal, July 2016
- de Salas, Pablo F.; Pastor, Sergio
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 07
A White Paper on keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter
journal, January 2017
- Adhikari, R.; Agostini, M.; Ky, N. Anh
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 01
Updated bounds on sum of neutrino masses in various cosmological scenarios
journal, September 2018
- Choudhury, Shouvik Roy; Choubey, Sandhya
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2018, Issue 09
Neutrino decoupling beyond the Standard Model: CMB constraints on the Dark Matter mass with a fast and precise N eff evaluation
journal, February 2019
- Escudero, Miguel
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2019, Issue 02
Constraining light sterile neutrino mass with the BICEP2/Keck array 2014 B-mode polarization data
journal, July 2019
- Roy Choudhury, Shouvik; Choubey, Sandhya
- The European Physical Journal C, Vol. 79, Issue 7
One Percent Determination of the Primordial Deuterium Abundance
journal, March 2018
- Cooke, Ryan J.; Pettini, Max; Steidel, Charles C.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 855, Issue 2
Relic neutrino decoupling with flavour oscillations revisited
text, January 2016
- De Salas, Pablo F.; Pastor, Sergio
- RWTH Aachen University
A White Paper on keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter
text, January 2017
- Hassel, C.; Wendt, K.; Mavromatos, N. E.
- Institute of Physics Publishing IOP
A White Paper on keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
text, January 2016
- Adhikari, R.; Agostini, M.; Ky, N. Anh
- arXiv
Neutrino Quantum Kinetic Equations: The Collision Term
text, January 2016
- Blaschke, Daniel N.; Cirigliano, Vincenzo
- arXiv
The primordial deuterium abundance of the most metal-poor damped Lyman-alpha system
text, January 2016
- Cooke, Ryan; Pettini, Max; Nollett, Kenneth M.
- arXiv
Lepton asymmetry, neutrino spectral distortions, and big bang nucleosynthesis
text, January 2016
- Grohs, E.; Fuller, George M.; Kishimoto, C. T.
- arXiv
One percent determination of the primordial deuterium abundance
text, January 2017
- Cooke, Ryan; Pettini, Max; Steidel, Charles C.
- arXiv
Updated Bounds on Sum of Neutrino Masses in Various Cosmological Scenarios
text, January 2018
- Choudhury, Shouvik Roy; Choubey, Sandhya
- arXiv
Constraining light sterile neutrino mass with the BICEP2/Keck Array 2014 B-mode polarization data
text, January 2018
- Choudhury, Shouvik Roy; Choubey, Sandhya
- arXiv
Neutrino decoupling beyond the Standard Model: CMB constraints on the Dark Matter mass with a fast and precise $N_{\rm eff}$ evaluation
text, January 2018
- Escudero, Miguel
- arXiv