Quantifying the sensitivity of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to isospin breaking with input from lattice QCD

Using known rates of nuclei formation in the early universe, it is possible to test for beyond-standard-model physics by varying the values of fundamental constants beyond what they are observed to be in the universe today. Constraints from this study demonstrated that violation of isospin symmetry rapidly produces conditions not consistent with low-metallicity gas cloud data, suggesting that such variation in fundamental constatns was not present in the early universe.

This work was undertaken as an undergraduate research project undertaken under the direction of Andre Walker-Loud at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.