Primordial Nucleosynthesis

Warmup: Nuclear and Particle Zoology

• antimatter
• baryons
• nuclear physics FAQ
  
  • nuclei, charted
  • nuclear forces
  • nuclear binding energies

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: Early History

• Alpher, Bethe, and Gamow (1948), classic group portrait
• Hayashi (1950)
• Alpher, Follin, and Hermann (1953)

Primordial Nucleosynthesis Theory

• Initial Conditions:
  first attempts: alpha beta gamma
• Weak Freezeout
• Deuterium Bottleneck
• Birth of the Light Elements
  • nuclear network
  • reaction flow and nuclear binding energies
  • predictions summarized: Schramm plot