Standard Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis after Planck

Understand

Primordial or Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three historical strong evidences for the Big-Bang model together with the expansion of the Universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB).

• The recent results by the Planck mission have slightly changed the estimate of the baryonic density Omega_b, compared to the previous WMAP value.
• This article updates the BBN predictions for the light elements using the new value of Omega_b determined by Planck, as well as an improvement of the nuclear network and new spectroscopic observations.
• While there is no major modification, the error bars of the primordial D/H abundance (2.67+/-0.09) x 10^{-5} are narrower and there is a slight lowering of the primordial Li/H abundance (4.89^+0.41_-0.39) x 10^{-10}.