Variations of nuclear binding with quark masses

TL;DR

This paper studies how variations in light quark masses affect nucleon and meson masses, and consequently nuclear binding energies, with implications for early universe nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of meson and nucleon mass shifts due to quark mass variations and evaluates their impact on nuclear binding energies within a one-boson exchange model.

Findings

Quark mass variations influence nucleon and meson masses.

Nuclear binding energies are sensitive to quark mass changes.

Results have implications for big bang nucleosynthesis scenarios.

Abstract

We investigate the variation with light quark mass of the mass of the nucleon as well as the masses of the mesons commonly used in a one-boson-exchange model of the nucleon-nucleon force. Care is taken to evaluate the meson mass shifts at the kinematic point relevant to that problem. Using these results, the corresponding changes in the energy of the 1 S0 anti-bound state, the binding energies of the deuteron, triton and selected finite nuclei are evaluated using a one-boson exchange model. The results are discussed in the context of possible corrections to the standard scenario for big bang nucleosynthesis in the case where, as suggested by recent observations of quasar absorption spectra, the quark masses may have changed over the age of the Universe.