Antimatter regions in the early universe and big bang nucleosynthesis

Abstract

We have studied big bang nucleosynthesis in the presence of regions of antimatter. Depending on the distance scale of the antimatter region, and thus the epoch of their annihilation, the amount of antimatter in the early universe is constrained by the observed abundances. Small regions, which annihilate after weak freezeout but before nucleosynthesis, lead to a reduction in the 4He yield, because of neutron annihilation. Large regions, which annihilate after nucleosynthesis, lead to an increased 3He yield. Deuterium production is also affected but not as much. The three most important production mechanisms of 3He are (1) photodisintegration of 4He by the annihilation radiation, (2) p-4He annihilation, and (3) n-4He annihilation by "secondary" antineutrons produced in 4He annihilation. Although p-4He annihilation produces more 3He than the secondary n-4He annihilation, the products of the latter survive later annihilation much better, since they are distributed further away from the annihilation zone. Our results are in qualitative agreement with similar work by Rehm and Jedamzik, but we get a larger 3He yield. ©2000 The American Physical Society.