https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202022701007
The Interaction of Neutrons with 7Be at BBN Temperatures: Lack of Standard Nuclear Solution to the “Primordial 7Li Problem”
1 ‘LNS at Avery Point, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT 06340, USA
2 Department of Particle Physics, Weizmann Inst. of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
3 Department of Physics, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-1233, USA
4 ISOLDE, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
5 Faculty of Engineering, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel
6 Bio-Imaging Unit, Institute for Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
* Communication author: moshe.gai@uconn.edu
† Deceased
Published online: 14 January 2020
We report the first measurement of alpha-particles from the interaction of neutrons with 7Be at “temperatures” of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We measured the Maxwellian averaged cross sections (MACS), with neutron beams produced by the LiLiT at the SARAF in Israel (with kT = 49.5 keV hence 0.57 GK). In addition, we measured the cross section of the 7Be(n,p) reaction, which is in excellent agreement with the recent measurement of the n_TOF collaboration, further substantiating our method as a demonstration of “proof of principle”. The cross section for the 7Be(n,ga) and the 7Be(n,a) reaction measured in the “BBN window” is considerably smaller than compiled by Wagoner in 1969 and used today in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We also rule out a hitherto unknown resonance in 8Be at the BBN window, that was conjectured as a possible standard nuclear physics solution to the “Primordial 7Li Problem”. Together with previous results, we deduce a new Wagoner-like Rate for the destruction of 7Be by neutrons which is based on all current measured data. We conclude the lack of a standard nuclear solution to the “Primordial 7Li Problem”. Our upper limit on the cross sections for the high energy alpha-particles is in agreement with recent measurement of the n_TOF collaboration, but it is considerably smaller than the p-wave extrapolation of the Kyoto collaboration. We measured the alpha-particles from the 7Be(n,gi)8Be*(3.03 MeV) reaction, which is considerably larger than a previous s-wave estimate. Hence, in contrast, we conclude s-wave dominance at BBN energies, as would be expected due to the broad (122 keV) low lying 2” state at En = 10 keV.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
