Electron screening and its effects on Big-Bang nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This paper investigates the impact of electron screening on Big Bang nucleosynthesis, concluding that it has negligible effects unless significantly enhanced beyond standard models, thus dismissing it as a relevant factor.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that electron screening effects are insignificant in Big Bang nucleosynthesis unless artificially amplified, challenging previous assumptions about their role.

Findings

Electron screening does not significantly alter elemental abundances in Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

Standard Debye-Hückel model is insufficient; enhancement is required to see effects.

Electron screening can be ruled out as a major factor in primordial nucleosynthesis.

Abstract

We study the effects of electron screening on nuclear reaction rates occurring during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis epoch. The sensitivity of the predicted elemental abundances on electron screening is studied in details. It is shown that electron screening does not produce noticeable results in the abundances unless the traditional Debye-H\"uckel model for the treatment of electron screening in stellar environments is enhanced by several orders of magnitude. The present work rules out electron screening as a relevant ingredient to Big Bang nucleosynthesis and ruling out exotic possibilities for the treatment of screening, beyond the mean-field theoretical approach.