Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Initial Conditions: Revisiting Wagoner et al. (1967)

TL;DR

This paper revisits a classic Big Bang Nucleosynthesis model, correcting the early universe temperature expression at high temperatures, which impacts initial conditions for primordial element formation calculations.

Contribution

It provides a corrected formula for the initial temperature conditions in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, addressing a longstanding error in the classic model.

Findings

Corrected the temperature-time relation at high temperatures.

Identified and rectified a common mistake in foundational cosmology literature.

Improves accuracy of primordial element formation simulations.

Abstract

We revisit Wagoner et al. (1967), a classic contribution in the development of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We demonstrate that it presents an incorrect expression for the temperature of the early universe as a function of time in the high temperature limit, $T \gtrsim 10^{10}$K. As this incorrect expression has been reproduced elsewhere, we present a corrected form for the initial conditions required for calculating the formation of the primordial elements in the Big Bang.