Primordial nucleosynthesis in conformal Weyl gravity
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Enrico Fermi Inst.
Recently conformal Weyl gravity has been considered as a candidate alternative gravity theory. This fourth-order theory is attractive because it is the only metric theory of gravity which is invariant under local conformal transformations of the metric. The authors calculate the primordial light element abundances in this theory. The major difference from the standard cosmology is that the universe expands far more slowly throughout the nucleosynthesis epoch. The production of {sup 4}He depends strongly on {eta}, the ratio of baryons to photons. For {eta} = 10{sup {minus}8} the mass fraction of {sup 4}He is X{sub 4} {approx_equal} 0.25 and the number densities relative to hydrogen for {sup 2}H, {sup 3}He and {sup 7}Li are n({sup 2}H)/n(H) {approx_equal} 9 {times} 10{sup {minus}20}, n({sup 3}He)/n(H) {approx_equal}4 {times} 10{sup {minus}18} and n({sup 7}Li)/n(H) {approx_equal} 10{sup {minus}13}. This value of {eta} corresponds to a baryon mass density close to the standard model critical density. However, adjusting {eta} to give a reasonable helium yield forces the deuterium and lithium yields to be small enough that the theory cannot be reconciled with observations.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03000
- OSTI ID:
- 10194676
- Report Number(s):
- FNAL/Pub-93/322-A; ON: DE94003002; CNN: Grant NAGW 2381; TRN: 93:004628
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Oct 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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