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Phys. Rev. D 73, 083525 (2006) [18 pages]

Big bang nucleosynthesis constraints on scalar-tensor theories of gravity

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Alain Coc*
Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse, IN2P3/CNRS/UPS, Bâtiment 104, 91405 0rsay Campus, France

Keith A. Olive†
William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

Jean-Philippe Uzan‡ and Elisabeth Vangioni§
Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR-7095 du CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France

Received 17 January 2006; published 26 April 2006

We investigate Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) in scalar-tensor theories of gravity with arbitrary matter couplings and self-interaction potentials. We first consider the case of a massless dilaton with a quadratic coupling to matter. We perform a full numerical integration of the evolution of the scalar field and compute the resulting light element abundances. We demonstrate in detail the importance of particle mass thresholds on the evolution of the scalar field in a radiation dominated universe. We also consider the simplest extension of this model including a cosmological constant in either the Jordan or Einstein frame.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.73.083525
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.73.083525
PACS:
98.80.Ft, 04.50.+h

*Electronic address: coc@csnsm.in2p3.fr

†Electronic address: olive@physics.unm.edu

‡Electronic address: uzan@iap.fr

§Electronic address: vangioni@iap.fr

 
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