Nucleosynhthesis in a Simmering Universe

Abstract

Primordial nucleosynthesis is a success story of the standard big bang (SBB) cosmology. We explore nucleosynthesis in possible models very different from SBB in which the cosmological scale factor increases linearly with time right through the period during which nucleosynthesis occurs till the present.It turns out that weak interactions remain in thermal equilibrium upto temperatures which are two orders of magnitude lower than the corresponding (weak interaction decoupling) temperatures in SBB. Inverse beta decay of the proton ensures adequate production of helium while producing primordial metallicity much higher than that produced in SBB. Attractive features of such models are the absence of the horizon, flatness and age problems and consistency with classical cosmological tests.