Reinvestigation of Quark Masses Variations on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Abstract

We report the constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis on a possible time-dependent quark mass. The variation may affect binding energies and Q values as well as resonance properties of light elements through the hadron mass variation in the nucleon-nucleon interaction. Updated light-element abundances and uncertainties along with a new detailed analysis of the resonance properties on the crucial He-3(d, p)He-4 reaction imply a narrower range on the possible quark-mass variations in the early universe. The optimum concordance region reduces to a value consistent with no variation.