To appear in the Encyclopedia of Astronomy and
Astrophysics (Institute of Physics) December, 2000
LIGHT ELEMENT NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
Gary Steigman
Departments of Physics and Astronomy, The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
- NUCLEOSYNTHESIS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE
- Weak Equilibrium and the 4He
Abundance
- Deuterium - The Ideal Baryometer
- Helium-3 - Complicated Evolution
- Lithium-7 - The Lithium Valley
- FROM HERE AND NOW TO THERE AND THEN
- Deuterium
- Helium-4
- Lithium-7
- CONFRONTATION OF THEORY WITH DATA
- Comparison of BBN with Non-BBN Baryon Density
Estimates
- COSMOLOGY CONSTRAINS PARTICLE PHYSICS
- SUMMARY
- REFERENCES
