Resonant Destruction as a Possible Solution to the Cosmological Lithium Problem

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether missed resonant nuclear reactions involving specific excited states could enhance 7Li destruction during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, potentially resolving the longstanding cosmological lithium discrepancy.

Contribution

It identifies candidate nuclear resonances that could increase 7Li destruction, proposing specific energy levels and widths, and highlights the need for experimental verification.

Findings

Potential resonances in 10C could resolve the lithium problem.

Known states like 7Be+t and 7Be+d reactions are promising candidates.

Large channel radii are required for sufficient reaction widths.

Abstract

We explore a nuclear physics resolution to the discrepancy between the predicted standard big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) abundance of 7Li and its observational determination in metal-poor stars. The theoretical 7Li abundance is 3-4 times greater than the observational values, assuming the baryon-to-photon ratio, eta_wmap, determined by WMAP. The 7Li problem could be resolved within the standard BBN picture if additional destruction of A=7 isotopes occurs due to new nuclear reaction channels or upward corrections to existing channels. This could be achieved via missed resonant nuclear reactions, which is the possibility we consider here. We find some potential candidate resonances which can solve the lithium problem and specify their required resonant energies and widths. For example, a 1^- or 2^- excited state of 10C sitting at approximately 15.0 MeV above its ground state with an effective width of order 10 keV could resolve the 7Li problem; the existence of this excited state needs experimental verification. Other examples using known states include 7Be+t \rightarrow 10B(18.80 MeV), and 7Be+d \rightarrow 9B(16.71 MeV). For all of these states, a large channel radius (a > 10 fm) is needed to give sufficiently large widths. Experimental determination of these reaction strengths is needed to rule out or confirm these nuclear physics solutions to the lithium problem.