BBN catalysis by doubly charged particles

TL;DR

This paper investigates how hypothetical doubly charged particles could catalyze primordial nucleosynthesis, especially lithium formation, and derives constraints on their properties based on observational lithium abundance limits.

Contribution

It introduces constraints on the abundance and lifetime of doubly charged particles based on their impact on Big Bang nucleosynthesis and lithium formation.

Findings

Particles with lifetimes less than 100 seconds are constrained by lithium data.

Abundance of such particles must be less than 10^{-9} relative to protons for long lifetimes.

Stable particles could account for dark matter only if their mass exceeds 10^{10} GeV.

Abstract

We consider primordial nucleosynthesis in the presence of hypothetical quasi-stable doubly charged particles. Existence of $X^{--}$ with macroscopic lifetimes will lead to the formation of its bound states with $^4$He and other light elements, significantly facilitating the subsequent formation of lithium nuclei. From observational constraints on maximum allowable amount of lithium, that we update in this work, we derive strong constraints on the abundance and lifetime of $X^{--}$. In a likely cosmological freeze-out scenario with temperatures initially exceeding the mass of $X^{--}$, the BBN constrains the lifetime of these particles to be less than about 100 seconds. For parametrically long lifetimes, lithium abundance data constrain $X^{--}$ abundance to be less than $10^{-9}$ relative to protons, regardless of whether these particles decay or remain stable. Stable particles could saturate the dark matter density only if their mass is comparable to or in excess of $10^{10}$ GeV, and most of $X^{--}$ will be found in bound states with beryllium nuclei, so that chemically they would appear as abnormally heavy helium isotopes.