Probing nuclear observables via primordial nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This paper investigates how primordial nuclear abundances depend on fundamental nuclear observables by varying these parameters and analyzing the resulting systematic uncertainties using multiple computational codes.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of the dependence of primordial abundances on nuclear parameters and assesses the uncertainties involved using different computational tools.

Findings

Deviations of a few percent in abundances due to parameter variations

Temperature dependence reduces sensitivity of abundances to nuclear parameters

Systematic uncertainties are quantified across multiple codes

Abstract

We study the dependence of primordial nuclear abundances on fundamental nuclear observables such as binding energies, scattering lengths, neutron lifetime, \textit{etc.} by varying these quantities. The numerical computations were performed with four publicly available codes, thus facilitating an investigation of the model-dependent (systematic) uncertainties on these dependences. Indeed deviations of the order of a few percent are found. Moreover, accounting for the temperature dependence of the sensitivity of the rates to some relevant parameters leads to a reduction of the sensitivity of the final primordial abundances, which in some cases is appreciable. These effects are considered to be relevant for studies of the dependence of the nuclear abundances on fundamental parameters such as quark masses or couplings underlying the nuclear parameters studied here.