Neutron Lifetime Anomaly and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Abstract

We calculate the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis abundances for helium-4 and deuterium for a range of neutron lifetimes, ${\tau }_n=840-1050$ s, using the state-of-the-art Python package \textsc{PRyMordial}. We show the results for two different nuclear reaction rates, calculated by NACRE II [1] and the PRIMAT [2] collaborations.

Comments: v2: References added, plot slightly updated. Matches the version to be published in Canadian Journal of Physics