Further Reading — Chapter 24

Textbooks

• Weinberg, S. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (Basic Books, updated 1993). The classic popular account of BBN, written by a Nobel laureate. Still the best non-technical introduction. Essential reading.

• Weinberg, S. Cosmology (Oxford University Press, 2008), Chapter 3. A rigorous graduate-level treatment of BBN with full derivations. The standard reference for the theoretical framework.

• Kolb, E.W., and Turner, M.S. The Early Universe (Addison-Wesley, 1990), Chapters 4–5. The classic textbook on early-universe cosmology, including a thorough treatment of BBN. Somewhat dated in numerical values but the physics exposition remains excellent.

• Mukhanov, V. Physical Foundations of Cosmology (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Chapter 3. A modern treatment with careful attention to the statistical mechanics of the early universe.

• Ryden, B. Introduction to Cosmology (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2017), Chapter 10. An accessible undergraduate-level treatment of BBN.

• Iliadis, C. Nuclear Physics of Stars (Wiley-VCH, 2nd ed., 2015), Chapter 6. BBN from the nuclear astrophysics perspective, with emphasis on the reaction rates and their uncertainties.

• Clayton, D.D. Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis (University of Chicago Press, 1983), Chapter 5. The classic nuclear astrophysics textbook. The BBN chapter is dated but the physical reasoning remains instructive.

Review Articles

• Fields, B.D. "The Primordial Lithium Problem," Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science 61, 47–68 (2011). An authoritative review of the lithium problem by one of the leading experts.

• Coc, A., and Vangioni, E. "Primordial Nucleosynthesis," International Journal of Modern Physics E 26, 1741002 (2017). A comprehensive modern review covering the nuclear physics inputs, computational methods, and observational comparisons.

• Cyburt, R.H., Fields, B.D., Olive, K.A., and Yeh, T.-H. "Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: Present Status," Reviews of Modern Physics 88, 015004 (2016). The definitive review of the state of BBN as of 2016. Includes all abundance predictions with uncertainties.

• Pitrou, C., Coc, A., Uzan, J.-P., and Vangioni, E. "Precision Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with Improved Helium-4 Predictions," Physics Reports 754, 1–66 (2018). The most detailed treatment of precision $Y_p$ predictions, including QED corrections and non-instantaneous neutrino decoupling.

• Particle Data Group. "Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis" review in Review of Particle Physics. Updated biennially. The standard reference for current BBN parameter values and constraints. Available at pdg.lbl.gov.

• Steigman, G. "Primordial Nucleosynthesis in the Precision Cosmology Era," Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science 57, 463–491 (2007). An excellent review from the WMAP era, emphasizing the concordance with CMB measurements.

Key Research Papers

Foundational

• Alpher, R.A., Bethe, H., and Gamow, G. "The Origin of Chemical Elements," Physical Review 73, 803–804 (1948). The famous $\alpha\beta\gamma$ paper. One page long.

• Alpher, R.A., and Herman, R. "Evolution of the Universe," Nature 162, 774–775 (1948). Predicted the CMB temperature of $\sim 5\,\text{K}$ — remarkably close to the observed $2.725\,\text{K}$.

• Wagoner, R.V., Fowler, W.A., and Hoyle, F. "On the Synthesis of Elements at Very High Temperatures," Astrophysical Journal 148, 3–49 (1967). The foundation of modern BBN calculations.

The Lithium Problem

• Spite, F., and Spite, M. "Abundance of Lithium in Unevolved Halo Stars and Old Disk Stars: Interpretation and Consequences," Astronomy & Astrophysics 115, 357–366 (1982). The discovery of the Spite plateau.

• Korn, A.J., et al. "A Probable Stellar Solution to the Cosmological Lithium Discrepancy," Nature 442, 657–659 (2006). Evidence for atomic diffusion in NGC 6397 that could partially resolve the lithium problem.

• Lind, K., et al. "The Lithium Isotope Ratio in Very Metal-Poor Stars," Astronomy & Astrophysics 554, A96 (2013). Showed that previous claims of ${}^6\text{Li}$ detections were likely artifacts of 3D NLTE effects.

Nuclear Reaction Measurements

• Mossa, V., et al. (LUNA Collaboration). "The Baryon Density of the Universe from an Improved Rate of Deuterium Burning," Nature 587, 210–213 (2020). The LUNA measurement of $d(p,\gamma){}^3\text{He}$ at BBN energies — a landmark result that made the BBN deuterium prediction as precise as the observational measurement.

Primordial Abundance Observations

• Cooke, R.J., Pettini, M., and Steidel, C.C. "One Percent Determination of the Primordial Deuterium Abundance," Astrophysical Journal 855, 102 (2018). The best current determination of primordial D/H.

• Aver, E., Olive, K.A., and Skillman, E.D. "The Effects of He I $\lambda$10830 on Helium Abundance Determinations," Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 07, 011 (2015). A careful determination of $Y_p$ from metal-poor H II regions.

BBN Codes (Public)

• PArthENoPE (Public Algorithm Evaluating the Nucleosynthesis of Primordial Elements): A modern, publicly available BBN code. Consiglio et al. (2018). Available at http://parthenope.na.infn.it/

• PRIMAT (PRImordial MATter): Pitrou et al. (2018). Includes state-of-the-art physics (QED corrections, neutrino oscillations). Available at http://www2.iap.fr/users/pitrou/primat.htm

• AlterBBN: Arbey et al. (2012, 2018). Designed for exploring BBN with non-standard physics (extra species, decaying particles, etc.). Available at https://alterbbn.hepforge.org/

Historical

• Weinberg, S. The First Three Minutes (Basic Books, 1977/1993). Essential background reading.

• Kragh, H. Cosmology and Controversy (Princeton University Press, 1996). The history of the steady-state vs. Big Bang debate, including the role of BBN.

• Alpher, R.A., and Herman, R. "Reflections on Early Work on Big Bang Cosmology," Physics Today 41(8), 24 (1988). The discoverers reflect on their pioneering work.