Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Initial Conditions: Revisiting Wagoner et al. (1967)

Abstract

We revisit Wagoner et al. (1967), a classic contribution in the development of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We demonstrate that it presents an incorrect expression for the temperature of the early universe as a function of time in the high temperature limit, $T \gtrsim 10^{10}$K. As this incorrect expression has been reproduced elsewhere, we present a corrected form for the initial conditions required for calculating the formation of the primordial elements in the Big Bang.