On nuclear reactions and Be-9 production in inhomogeneous cosmologies

Abstract

It is argued that additions to the standard nuclear reaction network are necessary for investigations of primordial nucleosynthesis in inhomogeneous cosmological models, and the reaction rates associated with these new reactions are presented. The use of these rates may help remove the ambiguity of whether results reported by different groups are, to some extent, an artifact of the different reaction networks employed. It is stressed that many of these new reactions play important roles in the nucleosynthesis, but are poorly determined and thus deserve further experimental study. Using this reaction network it is shown that the production of Be-9 in inhomogeneous models is strongly dependent on the density contrast and on the high-density volume fraction. Consequently, observations of Be-9 in stars could lead to vital information on the value of these crucial, but poorly determined, parameters.