Tau Neutrino Decays and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

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We investigate the non-radiative decay during nucleosynthesis of a massive tau neutrino with mass 0.1 - 1 MeV into an electron neutrino and a scalar or pseudoscalar particle, ϕ. The full Boltzmann equation is used and shown to give markedly different results than the usual non-relativistic formalism for relativistic or semi-relativistic neutrino decays. Indeed, the region we investigate is where the formalism that has previously been applied to solving this problem is expected to break down. We also compare the nucleosynthesis predictions from this scenario with results from the standard model and with some of the available observational determinations of the primordial abundances. It is found that for relativistic or semi-relativistic decays the helium abundance can be significantly lowered without changing other light element abundances. Since a problem with the standard model of Big Bang nucleosynthesis is that helium appears to be overproduced, a decay of the type we discuss can be a possible solution.