TY - GEN
T1 - Chemical origins
T2 - Nuclear chemistry in the early universe
AU - Olive, Keith A.
PY - 2008/2/15
Y1 - 2008/2/15
N2 - Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), describes the production of the light elements in the early universe. The theoretical prediction for the abundances of D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li is discussed and compared with their observational determination. The spectrum of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) now independently measures the baryon density to high precision. As a result, the CMB data test BBN. One finds that the CMB along with D and 4He observations paint a consistent picture. This concordance stands as a major success of the hot big bang. On the other hand, 7Li remains discrepant with the CMB-preferred baryon density; possible explanations are reviewed.
AB - Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), describes the production of the light elements in the early universe. The theoretical prediction for the abundances of D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li is discussed and compared with their observational determination. The spectrum of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) now independently measures the baryon density to high precision. As a result, the CMB data test BBN. One finds that the CMB along with D and 4He observations paint a consistent picture. This concordance stands as a major success of the hot big bang. On the other hand, 7Li remains discrepant with the CMB-preferred baryon density; possible explanations are reviewed.
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U2 - 10.1021/bk-2008-0981.ch002
DO - 10.1021/bk-2008-0981.ch002
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84905582227
SN - 9780841274310
T3 - ACS Symposium Series
SP - 16
EP - 38
BT - Chemical Evolution Across Space and Time
PB - American Chemical Society
ER -