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Title: Non-extensive statistics to the cosmological lithium problem

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7];  [8]
  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou (China)
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  3. Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain); Inst. d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain)
  4. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan)
  5. Texas A & M Univ., Commerce, TX (United States)
  6. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan); National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo (Japan); Beihang Univ., Bejing (China)
  7. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo (Japan); Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  8. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)

Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) theory predicts the abundances of the light elements D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li produced in the early universe. The primordial abundances of D and 4He inferred from observational data are in good agreement with predictions, however, BBN theory overestimates the primordial 7Li abundance by about a factor of three. This is the so-called "cosmological lithium problem." Solutions to this problem using conventional astrophysics and nuclear physics have not been successful over the past few decades, probably indicating the presence of new physics during the era of BBN. We have investigated the impact on BBN predictions of adopting a generalized distribution to describe the velocities of nucleons in the framework of Tsallis non-extensive statistics. This generalized velocity distribution is characterized by a parameter q, and reduces to the usually assumed Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution for q = 1. We find excellent agreement between predicted and observed primordial abundances of D, 4He, and 7Li for 1.069 ≤ q ≤ 1.082, suggesting a possible new solution to the cosmological lithium problem.

Research Organization:
Texas A & M Univ., Commerce, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-08ER41533; SC0009971
OSTI ID:
1537169
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 834, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 50 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (8)

A Long Journey of Lithium: From the Big Bang to Our Smartphones journal September 2019
Constraining cosmic scatter in the Galactic halo through a differential analysis of metal-poor stars journal December 2017
Theoretical aspects of Hamiltonian kappa distributions journal August 2019
Beyond Boltzmann–Gibbs–Shannon in Physics and Elsewhere journal July 2019
Spodumene: The Lithium Market, Resources and Processes journal May 2019
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with an Inhomogeneous Primordial Magnetic Field Strength journal February 2019
Thermal Doppler Broadening of Spectral Emissions in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas journal December 2018
Introduction to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Modern Cosmology text January 2017

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