Improved big bang nucleosynthesis constraints on heavy neutral leptons

Author(s):
Boiarskyi, O. (0000-0003-0629-7119); Ovchynnikov, M. (0000-0001-7002-5201); Ruchayskiy, O.; Syvolap, V.
Published
2021
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Abstract

We constrain the lifetime of thermally produced heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) from big bang nucleosynthesis. We show that even a small fraction of mesons present in the primeval plasma leads to the overproduction of primordial helium-4. This constrains the lifetime of HNLs to be tau(N) < 0.02 s for masses above the mass of the pion (as compared to 0.1 s reported previously). In combination with accelerator searches, this allows us to put a new lower bound on the HNL masses and define the "bottom line" for HNL searches at the future Intensity Frontier experiments.

Date issued
2021-07-16
Language
English
Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
Is part of
Physical Review D (2021), No. 2
hdl
1887/3277883
doi
10.1103/PhysRevD.104.023517