Effect of circular Unruh radiation on bound nucleons and a possible answer to the Lithium 7 puzzle

TL;DR

This paper hypothesizes that Unruh radiation due to nuclear centripetal acceleration affects nucleon energy levels, potentially explaining the Lithium-7 abundance anomaly in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis linking Unruh radiation to nuclear energy level shifts, offering a possible solution to the Lithium-7 puzzle.

Findings

Unruh temperature may influence nuclear energy level occupation.

Effect is most significant in Lithium-7 nuclei.

Potential explanation for Lithium-7 abundance discrepancy.

Abstract

In the shell model of nuclei, protons and neutrons move in a phenomenological nuclear potential much in the same manner as electrons move in Coulomb based potential in the shell model of atoms. As in the atomic case, the protons and neutrons of certain nuclear energy levels will have a non-zero orbital angular momentum (i.e. l =/= 0) and will therefore experience a centripetal potential and a centripetal acceleration. We advance the hypothesis, based on justification via the path integral formalism, that if one associates an Unruh temperature with this quantum centripetal acceleration then there is a potentially experimentally observable effect on certain nuclei -- the shifting of the naive expectations of the relative occupation of the ground and lowest lying energy levels. In particular we find that this effect should be most prominent in Li-7 nuclei. We speculate that this effect of the Unruh temperature might offer an answer to the Li-7 problem in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.