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# The Low-Frequency Character of the Thermal Correction to the Casimir Force between Metallic Films LA-UR 02-4696

## I Introduction

A recent paper 1 , in which simultaneous consideration of the thermal and finite conductivity corrections to the Casimir force between metal plates leads to a significant deviation from an experimental result 2  and previous theoretical work, has attracted considerable interest. The principal conclusion in 1  leading to this discrepancy is that the $`TE`$ electromagnetic mode ($`𝐄`$ parallel to the surface) does not contribute to the force at finite temperature. Arguments against the analysis given in 1  have been numerous 3 ; 4 ; 5 ; 6  but not universally accepted 7 ; 8 .

A careful numerical analysis of the problem leads us and others to conclude that the results presented in 1  are mathematically correct. As we show here, this analysis does not accurately represent the experimental arrangement used in 2 . The aspect of the problem that has not been considered in detail is the appropriateness of a dielectric model of the metallic plates at low frequencies, which, as we will show, are most relevant for the thermal correction. The purpose of this note is to expand on our previous work 9  and to point out that the proper boundary conditions for conductors have not yet been directly applied to this problem, and to show that the experimental result 2  can be fully explained by this application.

## II Spectrum of the $`TE`$ Mode Thermal Correction of the Casimir Force

Following Ford 10 , the spectrum of the Casimir force is given by Eqs. (2.3) and (2.4) of Lifshitz’ seminal paper 11 . We note that

$$\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{coth}\frac{\mathrm{}\omega }{2kT}=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{}\omega /kT)1}=\frac{1}{2}+g(\omega )$$
(1)
and we only include the second term on the right-hand side in the determination of the spectrum of the thermal correction. From Eq. (2.4) of 11 , the spectrum of the $`TE`$ mode excitation between parallel plates can be described by

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{\pi ^2c^3}}\right]F_\omega `$ $`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{\pi ^2c^3}}\right]\omega ^3g(\omega )`$ (2)
$`\times `$ $`\mathrm{Re}{\displaystyle _C}p^2𝑑p\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(s+p)^2}{(sp)^2}}e^{2ip\omega a/c}1\right]^1,`$ (3)
$$s=\sqrt{ϵ(\omega )1+p^2}$$
(4)
where $`a`$ is the plate separation, and we have assumed that the plates are made of the same material with vacuum between them. The integration path $`C`$ can be separated into $`C_1`$ for $`p=1`$ to 0, which describes the effect of plane waves, and $`C_2`$ with pure imaginary values $`p=i0`$ to $`i\mathrm{}`$ for exponentially damped (evanescent) waves.

In anticipation that the effect is a low-frequency phenomenon, we use the parameters for Au in 1  for $`\mathrm{Im}ϵ=ϵ_2`$ and employ the Kramers-Kronig relations to determine $`\mathrm{Re}ϵ=ϵ_1`$. We find for frequencies $`\omega <10^{14}`$ s-1 that, to good approximation,

$$ϵ_1=\frac{1.48\times 10^4}{1+(\omega /\omega _0)^2};ϵ_2=\frac{1.8\times 10^{18}}{\omega (1+(\omega /\omega _0)^2)}$$
(5)
with $`\omega _0=3.3\times 10^{13}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

In 1 , a net deviation from the zero-temperature value of the Casimir force is predicted to be about 25% for a plate separation of $`1\mu `$m at 300 K. The experimental results reported in 2  had their greatest sensitivity around 1 $`\mu `$m, and disagree significantly with the results in 1 . As a comparison, we numerically integrate Eq. 2) for $`a=1\mu `$m and $`T=300`$ K, using Eq. (5) for the permittivity. The results are shown in Fig. 1, where we have separated the results from the two integration paths. In Fig. 1a, it can be seen that there is no significant deviation from the perfectly conducting case. On the other hand, the contribution from evanescent waves, shown in Fig. 1b, is large and the integrated value is in good agreement with the result given in 1 .

We see immediately that the main contributions of the $`TE`$-mode finite conductivity correction are around $`\omega =10^{10}10^{13}`$ s-1. This behavior is due to an approximately quadratic increase with $`\omega `$ of the $`C_2`$ integral and a suppression beginning at $`\omega =kT/\mathrm{}=4\times 10^{13}`$ s-1 due to $`g(\omega )`$. This is a low frequency range and we can question certain assumptions in 1  and in the Lifshitz calculation, among others, in regard to theoretical predictions relevant to the experimental arrangement in 2 .

## III Low Frequency Limit and Field Behavior in Metallic Materials

When the depth of penetration of the electromagnetic field into a metal,

$$\delta =c/\sqrt{2\pi \mu \sigma \omega }$$
(6)
where $`\sigma `$ is the conductivity and $`\mu `$ is the permeability (for Au and Cu, $`\sigma 3\times 10^{17}\mathrm{s}^1`$, $`\mu =1`$), becomes of the same order as the mean free path of the conduction electrons, it is no longer possible to describe the field in terms of a dielectric permeability 12 ; 13 . This occurs for optical frequencies $`\omega 5\times 10^{13}`$ s-1 for metals such as Au and Cu where the mean free path, at 300 K, is about $`3\times 10^6`$ cm 14  (p. 259). At frequencies above $`10^{14}`$ s-1 the permeability description again becomes valid because on absorbing a photon, a conduction electron acquires a large kinetic energy and has a shortened mean free path. However, in the interaction of a field with a material surface, $`𝐄`$ and $`𝐇`$ can always be related linearly through the surface impedance (which relates the electric field at the surface to a surface current hence magnetic field); this approach has been used in calculation of the Casimir force 15 . A related correction arises from the the plasmon interaction with the surface which becomes significant near the plasma frequency of the metal, and has been estimated as nearly 10% 16  for sub-$`\mu `$m plate separations.

The proper boundary conditions for a conducting plane have been discussed by Boyer 17 . He points out that when (using here the notation of 1 ) $`\omega \eta ^2\rho /4\pi `$, where $`\rho `$ is the resistivity and $`\eta `$ is the dissipation, the usual dielectric boundary conditions are not applicable. For Au, using the parameters in 1 , this limit is met for $`\omega 4\times 10^{14}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This corresponds to an optical wavelength of 5 $`\mu `$m, which implies that for plate separations significantly larger than this, and of course for $`\omega 0`$, the plates must be treated as good conductors.

The boundary conditions for a conducting surface are discussed in 18  (Sec. 8.1). At low frequencies (e.g., where the displacement current can be neglected), a tangential electric field at the surface of a conductor will induce a current $`𝐣_{}=\sigma 𝐄_{}`$, where $`\sigma `$ is the conductivity. The presence of the surface current leads to a discontinuity in the normal derivative of $`𝐇_{}`$, hence a discontinuity in the normal derivative of $`𝐄_{}`$, at the boundary of a conducting surface. These boundary conditions are quite different from the dielectric case where the fields and their derivatives are assumed continuous.

## IV Electromagnetic Modes between Metallic Plates

We are interested in modes between two conducting plates separated by a distance $`a`$. In the limit that the plates are thin films of thickness $`d>\delta `$, the skin depth, we can assume that the plates are infinitely thick and the problem is considerably simplified. This is well-satisfied for the conditions of the experiment 2  when $`\omega >10^{11}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in which case $`\delta <0.7\mu `$m compared to the film thickness of 1 $`\mu `$m. Essentially all of the $`TE`$ mode thermal correction comes in the $`10^{11}`$ and $`10^{13}`$ s-1 range as shown in Fig. 1.

Taking the $`\widehat{z}`$ axis as perpendicular to the plates, and the mode propagation direction along $`\widehat{x}`$, for the case of $`TE`$ modes (also referred to as $`H`$ or magnetic modes), $`E_x=0`$. The plates surfaces are located at $`z=0`$ and $`z=a`$. For a perfect conductor, $`H_z/z=0`$ at the conducting surfaces. A finite conductivity makes this derivative non-zero, and can be estimated from the small electric field $`E_y`$ that exists at the surface of the plate, (see 18 , Sec. 8.1 and Eq. (8.6))

$$\stackrel{}{E}_{}=\widehat{y}E_y=\sqrt{\frac{\omega }{8\pi \sigma }}(1i)\widehat{n}\times \stackrel{}{H}_{}.$$
(7)
where $`\stackrel{}{H}=\widehat{x}H_x`$ and it is assumed that the displacement current in the metal plate can be neglected ($`\sigma >>\omega `$), and that the inverse of the mode wavenumber is less than $`\delta `$. $`E_y`$ and $`H_x`$ are related through Maxwell’s equation $`\stackrel{}{}\times \stackrel{}{H}=\stackrel{}{E}/ct`$. Assuming a time dependence of $`e^{i\omega t}`$, and vacuum between the plates,

$$\frac{H_x}{z}=\pm \frac{i\omega }{c}E_y.$$
(8)
where $`\pm `$ indicates sign of $`\widehat{n}`$ at $`z=0`$ and $`z=a`$ respectively. The boundary conditions at the surfaces are thus

$$\frac{}{z}H_z=\pm i\sqrt{\frac{\omega }{8\pi \sigma }}\left(\frac{\omega }{c}\right)(1i)H_z\pm \alpha H_z.$$
(9)
Solutions of the form $`H_{}(z)=Ae^{Kz}+Be^{Kz}`$, where $`K^2=k^2\omega ^2/c^2`$ and $`k`$ is the transverse wavenumber, can be constructed for the space between the conducting plates. The eigenvalues $`K`$ can be determined by the requirement that Eq. (8) be satisfied at $`z=0`$ and $`z=a`$. With the usual substitution $`\omega =i\xi `$, the eigenvalues $`K`$ are then given by (see 19 , Sec. 7.2)

$$G_{TE}(\xi )\frac{(\alpha +K)^2}{(\alpha K)^2}e^{2Ka}1=0$$
(10)
and the force can be calculated by the techniques outlined in 19 , Sec. 7.3.

This result can be recast in the notation of the Lifshitz formalism, and the spectrum of the thermal correction can be calculated as before. Noting that $`K=i\omega p/c`$,

$$F_\omega =\omega ^3g(\omega )_Cp^2𝑑p\left[\frac{(\alpha +i\omega p/c)^2}{(\alpha i\omega p/c)^2}e^{2i\omega p/c}1\right]^1.$$
(11)
Results of a numerical integration are shown in Fig. 2, where it can be seen by comparison with Fig. 1 that the metallic plate boundary condition does not show a significant contribution from the $`C_2`$ integral of the $`TE`$ mode thermal correction and is therefore similar to that for the “perfect conductor” boundary condition. This reconciles the discrepancy between the prediction in 1  and the experimental results reported in 2 .

## V Conclusion

The problem of calculating the $`TE`$ mode contribution to the Casimir force has been previously treated with the “Schwinger prescription” 20  of setting the dielectric constant to infinity before setting $`\omega =0`$. This prescription has become controversial 21 , a term that can be used to describe the entire history of the theory of the temperature correction. However, there is no doubt that the issues brought up in 1  are important.

The purpose of our calculation is to take a different approach and to study the low-frequency behavior of the correction in order to understand its character. We have shown that the finite temperature correction in 1  is a low-frequency phenomenon. The frequency is sufficiently low so that treating the plates as bulk dielectrics is not valid. By use of a more realistic description of the field interaction with the plates we show that the modes between metallic plates of finite conductivity produce a finite temperature correction in close agreement with the perfectly conducting case. The principal difference between our result and the previous work is that we have allowed for the possibility that the derivatives of the fields at the conducting boundary are discontinuous. This possibility exists because the fields produce currents in the conducting plates that are discontinuous across the boundary between the vacuum and the conductor. Although it is tempting to model the finite conductivity as a modification to the dielectric permittivity, such a model fails when the mean free path of the conduction electrons exceeds the penetration depth of the electromagnetic field, and thus fails for frequencies of interest for the thermal correction to the $`TE`$ electromagnetic mode.

We have shown that the conducting boundary conditions that are applicable for frequencies where the $`TE`$ mode thermal correction has its significant contribution lead to a net increase of the $`TE`$ mode force, and is of the same magnitude as the perfectly conducting case. This result is in agreement with the experimental results reported in 2 . However, additional and improved experiments with large plate separations (greater than 2 $`\mu `$m) with both conducting and dielectric plates would provide the definitive test. A particularly tempting dielectric would be diamond which offers both theoretical and experimental benefits.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Of all known particles neutrinos have the weakest interactions and the smallest possibly nonvanishing, mass. Thanks to these properties neutrino is the second most abundant particle in the universe after photons. According to observations the number density of photons in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is $`n_\gamma =412`$/cm3. In standard cosmology the number density of cosmic neutrinos can be expressed through $`n_\gamma `$ as

$`n_\nu +n_{\overline{\nu }}=3n_\gamma /11=112/\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (1)
for any neutrino flavor ($`\nu _e`$, $`\nu _\mu `$, and $`\nu _\tau `$), assuming that there is an equal number of neutrinos and antineutrinos.

Knowing the temperature of CMBR, $`T_\gamma =2.728\mathrm{K}=2.3510^4`$ eV, one can calculate the temperature of cosmic neutrinos:

$`T_\nu =(4/11)^{1/3}T_\gamma =1.95\mathrm{K}=1.6810^4\mathrm{eV}`$ (2)
which is true if the neutrino mass is much smaller than their temperature, $`m_\nu T_\nu `$. Otherwise the parameter $`T_\nu `$ does not have the meaning of temperature; up to a constant factor it can be understood as the inverse cosmological scale factor $`a(t)`$. Theory predicts that the spectrum of cosmic neutrinos, even massive ones, is given by the almost equilibrium form:

$`f_\nu =\left[\mathrm{exp}\left(p/T\xi \right)+1\right]^1`$ (3)
with the dimensionless chemical potential $`\xi =\mu /T`$ usually assumed to be negligibly small. However one should note that in the expression above $`p`$ is the neutrino momentum, while in the equilibrium distribution there stands energy $`E=\sqrt{m_\nu ^2+p^2}`$.

There is a small correction to expression (3) of the order of $`(m_\nu /T_d)^2`$ where $`T_d`$ is the neutrino decoupling temperature, $`T_d\mathrm{MeV}`$ \- this is the temperature when neutrinos stopped to interact with primeval plasma. This correction appeared because at $`T>T_d`$ neutrinos were in equilibrium and their distribution depended on $`E/T`$. Distribution of noninteracting neutrinos should be a function of $`pa(t)`$. In the case of instantaneous decoupling it turns into $`f(\sqrt{(p/T)^2+(m_\nu /T_d)^2})`$, while for non-instantaneous decoupling the dependence on mass could be different.

More details about cosmological neutrinos can be found e.g. in a recent review paper .

Neutrinos are normally assumed to possess only usual weak interactions with $`(VA)`$-coupling to $`W`$ and $`Z`$ bosons. Correspondingly, if $`m_\nu =0`$, only left-handed neutrinos, $`\nu _L`$, i.e. those with spin anti-parallel to their momentum (and parallel for $`\overline{\nu }`$), possess this interaction, while right-handed neutrinos, $`\nu _R`$, are sterile. If $`m_\nu 0`$ right-handed neutrinos would be also coupled to intermediate bosons with the strength suppressed as $`(m_\nu /E)^2`$ and their cosmological number density would be always negligible since their mass is bounded from above by a few eV see eqs. (13,14). If however neutrinos are mixed and massive (possibly with Majorana and Dirac masses) additional three sterile neutrinos could be abundantly produced in the early universe .

It is known from experiment that there are at least three neutrino families (or flavors), $`\nu _e`$, $`\nu _\mu `$, and $`\nu _\tau `$. From LEP data the number of light neutrino flavors with $`m_\nu <m_Z/2`$ is indeed three:

$`N_\nu =2.993\pm 0.011`$ (4)
One can find references to original experimental papers in the Review of Particle Physics .

Direct experiment limits on neutrino masses are

$`m_{\nu _e}<3\mathrm{eV},m_{\nu _\mu }<190\mathrm{keV},m_{\nu _\tau }<18.2\mathrm{MeV}`$ (5)
As we will see below, cosmology allows to derive an upper limit on masses of all neutrino flavors similar to that presented above for $`m_{\nu _e}`$.

There is a strong evidence in favor of neutrino oscillations. The best fit solutions to the observed neutrino anomalies indicates maximum mixing between $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ with mass difference about $`3\times 10^3`$ eV2 (for explanation of atmospheric anomaly) and also large mixing between $`\nu _e`$ and another active neutrino with mass difference between $`10^310^5`$ eV2 (for explanation of the deficit of solar neutrinos). If mass differences are indeed so small then masses of all active neutrinos should be below 3 eV and right-handed neutrinos would not be practically produced in particle interactions in the standard theory, but as we noted below, they may be produced by oscillations.

Except for the above mentioned anomalies, and possibly LSND, neutrinos are well described by the standard electroweak theory. For a recent review of neutrino anomalies see e.g. ref. .

In what follows we discuss the bounds in neutrino masses that can be derived from the magnitude of cosmic energy density and large scale structure of the universe (sec. 1). Relation between cosmological neutrinos and CMBR is considered in sec. 4. In section 5 we describe the role played by neutrinos in big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and present the limits on the number of neutrino species and possible neutrino degeneracy. Cosmological impact of neutrino oscillations is considered in sec. 6. The body of the lectures is preceded by a brief presentation of basic cosmological facts and essential observational data (section 2). These lectures present a shorter version of the recent review paper  where one can find details and a long list or references, many of which are omitted here because of lack of space and time.

## 2 A little about cosmology

The universe is known to expand according to the Hubble law:

$`V=Hr`$ (6)
where $`V`$ is the velocity of a distant object, $`r`$ is the distance to it and $`H=\dot{a}/a`$ is the Hubble constant (or better to say, Hubble parameter, since it is not constant in time). The present day value of $`H`$ is given by

$`H=100h\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{sec}/\mathrm{Mpc}`$ (7)
with $`h=0.7\pm 0.1`$. There are still indications for smaller and larger values of $`H`$ but we will not go into details here. One can find discussion of determination and values of this and other cosmological parameters e.g. in recent papers .

The critical or closure energy density is proportional to $`H^2`$ and is equal to:

$`\rho _c={\displaystyle \frac{3H^2m_{Pl}^2}{8\pi }}=10.6h^2\mathrm{keV}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (8)
where $`m_{Pl}=1.221`$ GeV is the Planck mass. Contributions of different forms of matter into cosmological energy density is usually presented in terms of dimensionless parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_j=\rho _j/\rho _c`$. According to the data the dominant part of cosmological energy density is given either by vacuum energy or by an unknown form of matter which has negative pressure, $`p<\rho /3`$, and induces an accelerated expansion (anti-gravity) at the present epoch. Its energy density is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{vac}0.7`$. The total energy density is close to the critical value so $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}1`$. The contribution of the usual baryonic matter, as determined from CMBR, is roughly $`\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2=0.022`$. This is is consistent with determination of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ from BBN. The remaining 0.25 is believed to be contributed by some unknown elementary particles (though, say, black holes are not excluded) weakly interacting with photons - that’s why they are called dark or invisible matter.

We are interested in a rather late period of the universe evolution when the temperature was in MeV range or below down to the present time. For more details about cosmology one can see any textbook or e.g. the recent reviews . Initially all the particles in primary plasma, photons, $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs, three flavors of neutrinos and antineutrinos, and a little baryons were in strong thermal contact and hence had equilibrium distributions (3) for fermions and similar expressions with minus sign in front of 1 for bosons. Particle energy $`E`$ should stand in this equation instead of $`p`$ but since majority of particles are relativistic, this difference is not important. The energy density of massless particles in thermal equilibrium is given by the expression:

$`\rho =\pi ^2g_{}T^4/30`$ (9)
where $`g_{}=10.75`$ includes contribution from all mentioned above particles except for neglected baryons.

At that stage the energy density was almost precisely equal to the critical one, with accuracy better than $`10^{15}`$, the particles were relativistic (for $`T>m_e`$) with equation of state $`p=\rho /3`$, where $`p`$ is the pressure density, and thus:

$`H={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2t}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{8\pi ^3g_{}}{90}}\right)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{T^2}{m_{Pl}}}=5.443\left({\displaystyle \frac{g_{}}{10.75}}\right)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{T^2}{m_{Pl}}}`$ (10)
Cross-section of neutrino interactions behaves as $`\sigma _\nu G_F^2E^2`$ and the reaction rate is $`\dot{n}/n\sigma _\nu nG_F^2T^5`$. Here $`nT^3`$ is the particle number density and $`G_F=1.16610^5`$ GeV2 is the Fermi coupling constant. Comparing reaction rate with the Hubble expansion rate we can conclude that at temperatures above a few MeV neutrinos should be in thermal equilibrium. To be more precise one should consider kinetic equation governing neutrino distribution in cosmological background:

$`\left(_t+Hp_p\right)f_\nu (t,p)=Hx_xf_\nu (x,y)=I_{coll}`$ (11)
where $`p`$ is the neutrino momentum, $`x=1/a(t)`$, $`y=pa/m_0`$, $`a(t)`$ is the cosmological scale factor, and $`m_0`$ is the normalization mass which we take as $`m_0=1`$ MeV. On relativistic stage when $`T1/a`$ is convenient to take $`x=m_0/T`$ and $`y=p/T`$.

For an estimate of neutrino decoupling temperature we neglect inverse reactions in the collision integral and assume Boltzmann statistics. Each of the neglected effects would enlarge the decoupling temperature by about 10-15%. In this approximation the kinetic equation becomes

$`Hx{\displaystyle \frac{f_\nu }{f_\nu x}}={\displaystyle \frac{DG_F^2y}{3\pi ^3x^5}}`$ (12)
where $`D`$ is a constant. Usually in the estimates of decoupling temperature one takes thermally average value of neutrino momentum, $`y=3`$. If we include all possible reactions where neutrinos may participate then $`D=80(1+g_L^2+g_R^2)`$ with $`g_L=\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W\pm 1/2`$ and $`g_R=\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ where $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=0.23`$ and the sign $`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }+_{}^{\prime \prime }`$ stands for $`\nu _e`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }_{}^{\prime \prime }`$ stands for $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$. Correspondingly the decoupling temperature determined with respect to the total reaction rate would be $`T_{\nu _e}^d=1.34`$ MeV and $`T_{\nu _\mu ,\nu _\tau }^d=1.5`$ MeV for $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ respectively.

If we take into account only $`(\nu e)`$-interactions then $`D=80(g_L^2+g_R^2)`$ and the decoupling of neutrinos from electron-positron (and photon) plasma would take place at $`T_{\nu _e}^d=1.87`$ MeV and $`T_{\nu _\mu ,\nu _\tau }^d=3.12`$ MeV. Above $`T^d`$ the temperatures of photon-electron-positron and neutrino plasma should be equal. In fact in the standard model equality is maintained down to $`Tm_e`$ (see below).

If only $`\nu \overline{\nu }`$-annihilation into $`e^+e^{}`$ is taken into account then $`D=16(g_L^2+g_R^2)`$ and the decoupling temperatures would be $`T_{\nu _e}^d=3.2`$ MeV and $`T_{\nu _\mu ,\nu _\tau }^d=5.34`$ MeV. Below these temperatures the total number density of neutrinos in comoving volume could not change.

When temperature dropped below electron mass, $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs annihilated heating photons but leaving neutrinos intact. As a result of this heating $`T_\gamma `$ become higher than $`T_\nu `$, eq. (2), and relative neutrino number density dropped with respect to photons as given by eq. (1) instead of earlier existed equilibrium ratio $`(n_\nu +n_{\overline{\nu }})/n_\gamma =3/4`$.

## 3 Cosmological limits on neutrino mass 111More detailed discussion of such limits can be found in the recent reviews .

### 3.1 Gerstein-Zeldovich limit

Since the number density of neutrinos at the present day is known, see eq. (1), it is easy to calculate their contribution into cosmological energy density, $`\rho _\nu =m_{\nu _a}n_\nu `$, if neutrinos are stable. Demanding that $`\rho _\nu `$ does not exceed the known value of energy density of matter we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \underset{a}{}}m_{\nu _a}<95\mathrm{eV}\mathrm{\Omega }_mh^214\mathrm{eV}`$ (13)
where the sum is taken over all light neutrino species, $`a=e,\mu ,\tau `$. This limit was originally derived by Gerstein and Zeldovich  in 1966. Six years later the result was rediscovered by Cowsik and McClelland . In the later paper, however, the photon heating by $`e^+e^{}`$-annihilation was not taken into account and both helicity states of massive neutrinos were assumed to be equally abundant. Correspondingly the resulting number density of relic neutrinos was overestimated by the factor 11/2.

If all active neutrinos are strongly mixed and their mass differences are very small (see the end of sec. 1) then the limit (13) for an individual mass would be $`m_\nu <4.7`$ eV.

The bound (13) can be noticeably strengthened because neutrino may make only sub-dominant contribution to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$. Arguments based on large scale structure formation (see below sec. 3.3) lead to the conclusion that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu <\mathrm{\Omega }_m/3`$ and correspondingly:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{a}{}}m_{\nu _a}<5\mathrm{eV}`$ (14)
As noted above, in the case of small mass differences the mass bound for a single neutrino would be $`m_\nu <1.7`$ eV.

### 3.2 Tremaine-Gunn limit

Quantum mechanics allows to obtain a lower limit on neutrino mass if neutrinos make all dark matter in galaxies, especially in dwarf ones . The derivation is based on the fact that neutrinos are fermions and hence cannot have an arbitrary large number density if their energy is bounded from above to allow formation of gravitationally bound cluster. So to make dominant contribution into dark matter neutrino mass should be larger than a certain value. Gravitationally bound neutrinos would be most densely packed if they form degenerate gas with Fermi momentum $`p_f=m_\nu V_F`$. The Fermi velocity $`V_F`$ can be determined from the virial theorem:

$`V_F^2=G_NM_{gal}/R_{gal}`$ (15)
where $`G_N=1/m_{Pl}^2`$ is the Newton gravitational constant and $`M_{gal}`$ and $`R_{gal}`$ are respectively the mass and radius of a galaxy.

The number density of degenerate neutrinos and equal number of antineutrinos is $`n_\nu =p_F^3/(3\pi ^2)`$ and correspondingly their total mass in a galaxy is

$`M_\nu =4\pi R_{gal}^3m_\nu n_\nu /3`$ (16)
According to observations galactic masses are dominated by invisible matter, so one should expect that $`M_\nu M_{gal}`$. From the equations above we find:

$`m_\nu =80\mathrm{eV}\left({\displaystyle \frac{300\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{sec}}{V}}\right)^{1/4}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\mathrm{kpc}}{R_{gal}}}\right)^{1/2}`$ (17)
For dwarfs $`R_{gal}1`$ kpc and $`V100`$ km/sec. Correspondingly neutrinos, if they constitute all dark matter in such galaxies, should be rather heavy, $`m_\nu >100`$ eV in contradiction with Gerstein-Zeldovich limit. Thus we have to conclude that dark matter in galaxies is dominated by some other unknown particles.

### 3.3 Neutrinos and large scale structure of the universe

Though, as we saw above, massive neutrinos cannot be dominant dark matter particles, they may play an essential role in large scale structure formation and evolution. According to the accepted point of view cosmological structures have been developed as a result of gravitational instability of initially small primordial density perturbations. The latter presumably were generated at inflationary stage due to rising quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. For reviews and list of references see e.g. . It is usually assumed that the spectrum of initial density perturbation has a simple power law form, i.e. Fourier transform of the density perturbations

$`(\delta \rho /\rho )_{in}={\displaystyle d^3k\delta (k)}`$ (18)
behaves as $`\delta ^2k^n`$. Moreover, the value of the exponent, $`n`$, is usually taken to be 1. It corresponds to flat or Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum , as indicated by inflation and consistent with observations.

With the known initial perturbations and equation of state of cosmological matter one can calculate the shape of the evolved spectrum and to compare it with observations. This permits to determine the properties of the cosmological dark matter. In the case of neutrinos density perturbations at small scales are efficiently erased as can be seen from the following simple arguments. Neutrinos were decoupled from plasma when they relativistic. The decoupling temperature is $`T^d`$ MeV, while $`m_\nu 10`$ eV. Thus after decoupling neutrinos free streamed practically with the speed of light. Since the flux of neutrinos from neutrino-rich regions should be larger than that from neutrino-poor regions, the inhomogeneities in neutrino distribution would smoothed down at the scales smaller than neutrino free path, $`l_{fs}=2t_{nr}`$. Here $`t_{nr}`$ is the cosmic time from beginning till the moment when neutrinos became nonrelativistic. As we mentioned above neutrinos propagate with the speed of light, so locally their path is equal just to $`t`$ and factor 2 came from the expansion of the universe. The mass contained inside $`l_{fs}`$ is

$`M_{fs}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi (2t_{fs})^3}{3}}\rho =m_{Pl}^2t_{fs}`$ (19)
where we used for the cosmological energy density the critical value (8) with the Hubble parameter $`H=1/(2t)`$, as given by eq. (10). Assuming that the universe was dominated by relativistic matter (photons and three neutrino flavors) till neutrino temperature dropped down to $`T_\nu =m_\nu /3`$ and taking into account that $`T_\nu 0.7T_\gamma `$ (2) we find that the mass inside the free-streaming length is

$`M_{fs}=0.1m_{Pl}^3/m_\nu ^210^{17}M_{}(\mathrm{eV}/m_\nu )^2`$ (20)
where $`M_{}=210^{33}`$ g is the solar mass. This result is derived for the case of one neutrino much heavier than the others. It would be modified in an evident way if neutrinos are mass degenerate.

In such a theory the characteristic mass of the first formed objects, $`M_{fs}`$, is much larger than the mass of large galaxies, $`M_{gal}10^{12}M_{}`$ and dark matter with such property is called hot dark matter (HDM). The dark matter particles for which the characteristic mass is smaller than the galactic mass are called cold dark matter (CDM) and the intermediate case is naturally called warm (WDM). In HDM model of structure formation large clusters of galaxies should be formed first and smaller structures could be created from larger ones later by their fragmentation. However such process demands too much time and, moreover, the observations indicate that smaller structures are older. Together with Tremaine-Gunn limit discussed in sec. 3.2, it “twice” excludes neutrinos as dominant part of dark matter in the universe. However mixed models with comparable amount of CDM and HDM are not excluded. Though the mystery of cosmic conspiracy - why different particles have comparable contribution to $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ \- becomes in this case even more pronounced:

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{vac}(\mathrm{\Omega }_m=\mathrm{\Omega }_{CDM}+\mathrm{\Omega }_{HDM})\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ (21)
From the arguments presented here one can see that the larger is the fraction of neutrinos in the total mass density of the universe the smaller should be power in cosmic structures at small scales. This permits to strengthen the upper limit on neutrino mass. Especially sensitive to neutrino mass are the structures at large red-shift $`z`$ because in neutrino dominated universe small structures should form late and should not exist at large $`z`$. The neutrino impact on the structure formation was analyzed in refs.  with the typical limits between 1 and 5 eV. More detailed discussion and more references can be found in the review . According to ref.  Sloan Digital Sky Survey is potentially sensitive to $`m_\nu 0.1`$ eV.

### 3.4  Cosmological limit on heavy neutrino mass

If there exists fourth lepton generation then the corresponding neutrino should be heavier than $`m_Z/2=45`$ GeV to surpass the LEP result (4). If these heavy neutrinos are stable on cosmological time scale, $`\tau _\nu t_U10^{10}`$ years, then their mass density may be cosmologically noticeable. Since such neutrinos are assumed to be very heavy their number density at decoupling should be Boltzmann suppressed and they may escape Gerstein-Zeldovich limit. First calculations of cosmological number density of massive particles were performed by Zeldovich in 1965 . However his result contained a numerical error later corrected in ref. . The same approach was applied to the calculations of the number/energy density of relic heavy neutrinos practically simultaneously in the papers  where it was found that the mass of heavy neutrino should be above 2.5 GeV to be cosmologically safe.

The number density of massive particle (neutrinos)s which survived annihilation is inversely proportional to the annihilation cross-section $`\sigma _{ann}`$ and is approximately given by the expression

$`n_\nu /n_\gamma =\left(\sigma _{ann}vm_\nu m_{Pl}\right)^1`$ (22)
where $`v`$ is the c.m. velocity of the annihilating particles and $`n_\gamma `$ is the number density of photons in CMBR. For relatively light neutrinos, $`m_\nu m_Z`$ (which is not realistic now), the annihilation cross-section is proportional to $`\sigma m_\nu ^2`$ and the energy density of heavy relic neutrinos drops as $`1/m_\nu ^2`$. According to the calculations quoted above $`\rho _\nu =\rho _c`$ for $`m_\nu =2.5`$ GeV.

For higher masses $`m_\nu >m_{W,Z}`$, the cross-section started to drop as $`\sigma \alpha ^2/m_\nu ^2`$ and the cosmologically allowed window above 2.5 GeV becomes closed for $`m_\nu >`$ (3-5) TeV . However for $`m_\nu >m_W`$ a new channel of annihilation becomes open,

$`\nu _h+\overline{\nu }_hW^+W^{}`$ (23)
with the cross-section rising as $`m_{\nu _h}`$ . The rise of the cross-section is related to the rise of the Yukawa couplings of Higgs boson which is necessary to ensure a large mass of $`\nu _h`$. Correspondingly the excluded region above a few TeV becomes open again. However the annihilation (23) proceeds only in one lowest partial wave and the cross-section is restricted by the unitarity limit ,

$`\sigma _J<\pi (2J+1)/p^2.`$ (24)
If one assumes that this limit is saturated then the large values $`m_{\nu _h}`$ about 100 TeV would be forbidden. In reality the limit should be somewhat more restrictive because it is natural to expect that the cross-section started to drop with rising mass of neutrino before it reaches the unitarity bound. However it is very difficult, if possible at all, to make any accurate calculations in this strong interaction regime.

To summarize this discussion, the cosmic energy density, $`\rho _{\nu _h}`$, of heavy neutrinos with the usual weak interaction is sketched in fig. (1). In the region of very small masses the ratio of number densities $`n_{\nu _h}/n_\gamma `$ does not depend upon the neutrino mass and $`\rho _{\nu _h}`$ linearly rises with mass. For larger masses $`\sigma _{ann}m_{\nu _h}^2`$ and $`\rho _{\nu _h}1/m_{\nu _h}^2`$. This formally opens a window for $`m_{\nu _h}`$ above 2.5 GeV. A very deep minimum in $`\rho _{\nu _h}`$ near $`m_{\nu _h}=m_Z/2`$ is related to the resonance enhanced cross-section around $`Z`$-pole. Above $`Z`$-pole the cross-section of $`\overline{\nu }_h\nu _h`$-annihilation into light fermions goes down with mass as $`\alpha ^2/m_{\nu _h}^2`$ (as in any normal weakly coupled gauge theory). The corresponding rise in $`\rho _{\nu _h}`$ is shown by a dashed line. However for $`m_{\nu _h}>m_W`$ the contribution of the channel $`\overline{\nu }_h\nu _hW^+W^{}`$ leads to the rise of the cross-section with increasing neutrino mass as $`\sigma _{ann}\alpha ^2m_{\nu _h}^2/m_W^4`$. This would allow keeping $`\rho _{\nu _h}`$ well below $`\rho _c`$ for all masses above 2.5 GeV. The behavior of $`\rho _{\nu _h}`$, with this effect of rising cross-section included, is shown by the solid line up to $`m_{\nu _h}=1.5`$ TeV. Above that value it continues as a dashed line. This rise with mass would break unitarity limit for partial wave amplitude when $`m_{\nu _h}`$ reaches 1.5 TeV (or 3 TeV for Majorana neutrino). If one takes the maximum value of the S-wave cross-section permitted by unitarity (24), which scales as $`1/m_{\nu _h}^2`$, this would give rise to $`\rho _{\nu _h}m_{\nu _h}^2`$ and it crosses $`\rho _c`$ at $`m_{\nu _h}200`$ TeV. This behavior is continued by the solid line above 1.5 TeV. However for $`m_{\nu _h}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{few}\mathrm{TeV}`$ the Yukawa coupling of $`\nu _h`$ to the Higgs field becomes strong and no reliable calculations of the annihilation cross-section has been done in this limit. Presumably the cross-section is much smaller than the perturbative result and the cosmological bound for $`m_{\nu _h}`$ is close to several TeV. This possible, though not certain, behavior is presented by the dashed-dotted line. One should keep in mind, however, that the presented results for the energy density could only be true if the temperature of the universe at an early stage was higher than the heavy lepton mass.

## 4 Neutrinos and CMBR

Measurements of the angular fluctuations of CMBR, which are in continuous progress now, also permit to obtain valuable information about cosmic neutrinos. The spectrum of fluctuations is presented in terms of $`C_l`$, the squares of the amplitudes in the decomposition of the temperature fluctuations in terms of spherical harmonics:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }T}{T}}={\displaystyle \underset{l,m}{}}a_{lm}Y_{lm}(\theta ,\varphi )`$ (25)
and

$`C_l={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2l+1}}{\displaystyle \underset{m=l}{\overset{l}{}}}|a_{lm}|^2`$ (26)
A typical spectrum of fluctuations is presented in fig. 2(a) .

For low $`l`$ the amplitudes $`C_l`$ are practically $`l`$-independent if the spectrum of initial density perturbations is flat. At $`l200`$ it has a pronounced peak and a few weaker peaks at larger $`l`$. At $`l>10^3`$ the fluctuations are strongly damped. A detailed explanation of these spectral features can be found e.g. in the review . These peaks were produced by sound waves at the earlier stage, roughly speaking at the moment of hydrogen recombination at $`T3000`$ K. After this moment the universe became transparent to CMB photons and the features existed at the moment of recombination became “frozen” and are observed now in the sky. The first peak of the largest amplitude corresponds to the “last” sound wave with the wave length equal to the horizon size at recombination divided by the speed of sound which for relativistic plasma is $`c_s=1/\sqrt{3}`$:

$`\lambda _1=l_{hor}^{(rec)}/\sqrt{3}`$ (27)
The other peaks correspond to maximum compression or rarefaction at the same moment and their phase is larger by $`n\pi `$. Their amplitude is typically smaller because corresponding waves was generated earlier and had more time to decay.

The physical scale $`l_{hor}^{(rec)}`$ depends upon the expansion regime and, in particular, upon the fraction of relativistic matter. Because of that the peak position is sensitive to number of neutrino families and to neutrino mass. However this effect is rather weak and to a much larger extent the position of the peak is determined by the geometry of the universe because the angle at which we see $`l_{hor}^{(rec)}`$ at the present time depends upon the curvature of space. The data strongly support spatially flat universe, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}=1`$ (for an analysis of previous and new data see e.g. ref. ).

More sensitive to the contribution of relativistic matter are heights of the peaks. The point is that at non-relativistic or, in other words, at matter-dominated (MD) stage gravitational potential of perturbations, $`\psi `$, remains constant. Indeed the potential satisfies the Laplace equation:

$`(1/a^2)\mathrm{\Delta }\psi \delta \rho `$ (28)
where $`a`$ is the cosmological scale factor and $`\delta \rho `$ is the density contrast. It is known that density perturbations at MD-stage rise as $`\delta \rho /\rho a`$, while the total energy density decreases as $`\rho 1/a^3`$. Correspondingly

$`\psi a^2\rho (\delta \rho /\rho )=const`$ (29)
If the cosmological expansion is not exactly non-relativistic due to presence of some relativistic matter (neutrinos) the gravitational potential would be time depending, $`\psi =\psi (t)`$, and the sound waves (which are induced by gravity) would be amplified - the effect is analogous to parametric resonance amplification.

The heights of the peaks also depend upon the fraction of baryonic matter, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2`$ since the latter makes the main contribution to the mass of acoustic oscillators, while dark matter particles do not experience any pressure from photons of CMB. The degeneracy of the impact of different cosmological parameters on the angular spectrum of CMBR makes determination of these parameters much more difficult and one needs to invoke additional information from other pieces of astronomical data and/or to wait till more precise measurement of all $`C_l`$ in forthcoming experiments.

At the present day the accuracy of determination of the properties of cosmic neutrinos from CMBR is not very good. In ref.  the upper limit on the number of neutrino families was found $`N_\nu <17`$ (95% confidence level) for the Hubble parameter $`h=0.72\pm 0.08`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2=0.020\pm 0.002`$. If these parameters are larger a larger fraction of relativistic energy density would be allowed and more neutrino flavors or other relativistic particles may exist. An additional account of the data on the large scale structure  permitted to arrive to an interesting lower limit, $`N_\nu >1.5`$. Thus an independent indication (in addition to BBN) of non-vanishing cosmological background of massless or very light neutrinos is obtained. Of course, these results are not competitive with BBN (see sec. 5) at the present time. However they can be such in near future.

If neutrinos are massive and contribute into hot component of dark matter, their presence can be traced through CMBR . Both effects mentioned above, a shift of the peak positions and a change of their heights, manifest themselves depending on the fraction of hot dark matter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{HDM}`$. Moreover the angular spectrum of CMBR is sensitive also to the value of neutrino mass because the latter shifts $`t_{eq}`$, the moment of the transition from radiation dominance to matter dominance. According to the paper  the amplitude of angular fluctuations of CMBR is 5-10% larger for $`400<l<1000`$ in the mixed hot-cold dark matter (HCDM) model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu =0.20.3`$ in comparison with the pure CDM model. An analysis of the data of ref.  on CMBR angular spectrum was performed in the paper.  and the best-fit range of neutrino mass was found:

$`m_\nu =0.042.2\mathrm{eV}.`$ (30)
An interesting effect which is related to neutrino physics in the early universe when the latter was about 1 sec old and the temperature was in MeV range may be observed in the forthcoming Planck mission if the expected accuracy at per cent level is achieved. It is usually assumed that at that time neutrinos had an equilibrium spectrum with the temperature which was initially equal to the temperature of photons, electrons, and positrons, while somewhat later at $`T<m_e`$ neutrino temperature dropped with respect to the photon one because $`e^+e^{}`$-annihilation heated photons but not neutrinos since neutrinos were already decoupled from electrons and positrons (see eq. (2) and discussion at the end of sec. 2). However the decoupling was not an instantaneous process and some residual interactions between $`e^\pm `$ and neutrinos still existed at smaller temperatures. The annihilation of the hotter electron-positron pairs, $`e^+e^{}\overline{\nu }\nu `$, would heat up the neutrino component of the plasma and distort the neutrino spectrum. The average neutrino heating under assumption that their spectrum maintained equilibrium was estimated in ref. . However, the approximation of the equilibrium spectrum is significantly violated and this assumption was abolished in subsequent works. In the earlier papers  kinetic equations were approximately solved in Boltzmann approximation. In ref.  the effect was calculated numerically, while in ref.  an approximate analytical expression was derived. After correction of the numerical factor 1/2 the calculated spectral distortion has the form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta f_{\nu _e}}{f_{\nu _e}}}310^4{\displaystyle \frac{E}{T}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{11E}{4T}}3\right)`$ (31)
Here $`\delta f=ff^{(eq)}`$. The distortion of the spectra of $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ is approximately twice weaker.

An exact numerical treatment of the problem (i.e. numerical solution of the integro-differential kinetic equations without any simplifying approximations) was conducted in the papers -. The accuracy of the calculations achieved in ref.  was the highest and some difference with the results of two other papers can be prescribed to a smaller number of grids in the collision integral  or to non-optimal distribution of them  (see discussion of different methods of calculations in ref. ). Recently calculations of the distortion of neutrino spectrum were done in ref.  in a completely different way using expansion in interpolating polynomials in momentum . The results of this work perfectly agree with those of ref. .

One would expect that the distortion of neutrino spectrum at a per cent level would result in a similar distortion in the primordial abundances of light elements. However, this does not occur because an excess of energetic neutrinos over the equilibrium spectrum which would give rise to a larger neutron-to-proton ratio and to a larger mass fraction of primordial $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ is compensated by an increase of the total energy density of $`\nu _e`$ which acts in the opposite direction diminishing the neutron-proton freezing temperature and thus diminishing the $`n/p`$-ratio (see below sec. 5). The net result of this distortion on $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ is at the level of $`10^4`$. Still the observation of this small deviation of neutrinos from equilibrium is not impossible. The corrections discussed here and electromagnetic corrections of ref.  could be interpreted as a change of $`N_\nu `$ from 3 to 3.04. Planck mission may detect this effect but the concrete features depend upon the ratio of neutrino mass to the recombination temperature $`T_{rec}=3000\mathrm{K}=0.26`$ eV.

## 5 Neutrinos and BBN

### 5.1 BBN - brief description

Physical processes essential for BBN took place when the temperature of the primeval plasma was in the interval from a few MeV down to 60-70 keV. According to eq. (10) the characteristic time was respectively between 0.1 sec up to 200 sec. During this period light elements $`{}_{}{}^{2}H`$, $`{}_{}{}^{3}He`$, $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{7}Li`$ were synthesized. As one can see from eq. (10) the universe cooling rate i.e. time-temperature relation depends on the number of particle species in the primeval plasma, $`g_{}`$. At BBN epoch the latter is usually parameterized as

$`g_{}=10.75+(7/4)(N_\nu 3)`$ (32)
where the effective number of additional neutrinos $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu =N_\nu 3`$ describes any form of energy present during BBN. This parameterization is precise if a non-standard energy has relativistic equation of state, $`p=\rho /3`$. In any other case $`\mathrm{\Delta }N`$ becomes a function of time and, moreover, the impact of additional energy on primordial abundances of different light elements could be different from that created by the equivalent number of massless neutrinos.

Building blocks for for creation of light elements were prepared in the weak interaction reactions:

$`n+\nu _e`$ $``$ $`p+e^{},`$ (33)
$`n+e^+`$ $``$ $`p+\overline{\nu }`$ (34)
At high temperatures, $`T>0.7`$ MeV, these reactions were fast in comparison with the universe expansion rate $`H`$ and the neutron-proton ratio followed the equilibrium curve:

$`(n/p)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }m/T\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(\xi _{\nu _e}\right)`$ (35)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }m=1.3`$ MeV is the neutron-proton mass difference and $`\xi _{\nu _e}=\mu _{\nu _e}/T`$ is dimensionless chemical potential of electronic neutrinos. At smaller $`T`$ reactions (33,34) became effectively frozen and the ratio $`n/p`$ would be constant if not the slow neutron decay with the life-time $`\tau _n=885.7\pm 0.8`$ sec .

The temperature of the freezing of the reactions (33,34), $`T_{np}`$, is determined by the competition of the reaction rate, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }G_F^2T^5`$ and the expansion rate, $`H\sqrt{g_{}}T^2`$. Hence $`T_{np}g_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{1/6}`$. Larger is $`g_{}`$, larger is $`T_{np}`$, and more neutrons would remain for creation of light elements. On the other hand, the nucleosynthesis temperature, $`T_{NS}`$, does not depend upon $`g_{}`$ but the time when $`T_{NS}`$ is reached depends upon it. Larger is $`g_{}`$ shorter is this time. Correspondingly less neutrons would decay and more helium-4 and deuterium would be created. Thus a variation of $`g_{}`$ acts in the same direction in both phenomena. In particular, an increase of $`N_\nu `$ by 1 leads to an increase of $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ by about 5% as one can easily check using the publicly available BBN code .

Light elements begin to form from the primeval protons and neutrons when the temperature reached the value

$`T_{NS}={\displaystyle \frac{0.064\mathrm{MeV}}{10.029\mathrm{ln}\eta _{10}}}`$ (36)
where $`\eta _{10}`$ is the ratio of baryon and photon number densities in units $`10^{10}`$. A very small baryon-to-photon ratio makes nucleosynthesis temperature much lower than typical nuclear binding energies. A few years ago $`\eta `$ was determined from BBN itself and now the measurements of the angular spectrum of CMBR (see sec. 4) permit to find it independently. According to the latter $`\eta _{10}5`$. This result is in a reasonable agreement with determination of $`\eta _{10}`$ from BBN. Once $`T_{NS}`$ is reached light elements are very quickly formed and practically all neutrons, that survived to this moment, were binded in $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$. The mass fraction of this element was about 25%, while relative number of deuterium nuclei (as well as $`{}_{}{}^{3}He`$) with respect to hydrogen is (a few)$`\times 10^5`$. Amount of $`{}_{}{}^{7}Li`$ is about five orders of magnitude smaller. Primordial abundances of light elements as functions of $`\eta _{10}`$ are presented in fig. 3.

A slight increase of $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ as a function of $`\eta `$ can be mostly explained by an increase of the nucleosynthesis temperature (36) with rising $`\eta `$. Correspondingly nucleosynthesis started earlier and more neutrons survived decay. A strong decrease of the amount of the produced deuterium is explained by a larger probability for $`{}_{}{}^{2}H`$ to meet a nucleon and to proceed to $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$.

To summarize, we have seen that the primordial abundances depend upon:

1. Number density of baryons, $`\eta =n_B/n_\gamma `$.
2. Weak interaction rate; this is usually expressed in terms of the neutron life-time. It is interesting that a variation of weak interaction strength by a factor of few would result either in complete absence of primordial $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ or in 100% dominance of the latter (no hydrogen). In both cases stellar evolution would be quite different from what we observe.
3. Cosmological energy density; non-standard contribution is usually parameterized as additional number of neutrino species $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$.
4. Neutrino degeneracy; degeneracies of $`\nu _\mu `$ or $`\nu _\tau `$ are equivalent to a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$, while degeneracy of $`\nu _e`$ has a much stronger (exponential) impact, see eq. (35), on the abundances because $`\nu _e`$ directly enters the (n-p)-transformation reactions (33,34) and can shift the $`(n/p)`$-ratio in either direction.

### 5.2 Role of neutrinos in BBN

The role that neutrinos played in BBN is already clear from the previous section. The sensitivity of BBN to the number of neutrino families was first noticed by Hoyle and Tayler in 1964 . Two years later a similar statement was made by Peebles . More detailed calculations were performed by Shvartsman  in 1969 who explicitly stated that the data on light element abundances could be used to obtain a bound on the number of neutrino flavors. Another 8 years later Steigman, Schramm, and Gunn presented analysis of the effect with all light elements taken into account.

The dependence of the produced deuterium and helium-4 on the number of neutrino species for different values of the baryon number density $`\eta _{10}`$ are presented in figs. 4,5.

At the present day the conclusion about the allowed number of neutrino families varies from paper to paper between an optimistic constraint $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu <0.2`$ up to a more cautious one $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu <1`$. The review of these results can be found e.g. in refs. .

If cosmological lepton asymmetry is non-vanishing then chemical potentials of neutrinos are non-zero and their energy density is higher than the energy density of non-degenerate neutrinos. Additional effective number of neutrino species in this case is given by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }N(\xi )={\displaystyle \frac{15}{7}}{\displaystyle \underset{a}{}}\left[2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\xi _a}{\pi }}\right)^2+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\xi _a}{\pi }}\right)^2\right]`$ (37)
where the sum is taken over all neutrino species $`a=e,\mu ,\tau `$. If one extra family of neutrinos is allowed by BBN then chemical potentials of $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ are bounded by $`|\xi _{\mu ,\tau }|<1.5`$. For electronic neutrinos the limit is much stronger, $`|\xi _e|<0.1`$ .

If combined variation of all chemical potentials is allowed such that by some conspiracy an increase in production of light elements due to non-zero $`\xi _{\mu ,\tau }`$ is compensated by a positive $`\xi _e`$ then the limits would be less restrictive. Using additional data from CMBR which allowed to fix $`\eta _{10}=5`$ the authors of reference  obtained:

$`|\xi _{\mu ,\tau }|<2.6,0.1<\xi _e<0.2`$ (38)
This bound disregards mixing between active neutrinos discussed below in sec. 6.3. Account of the latter may make this limit considerably more restrictive, eq. (66).

Distortion of spectrum of $`\nu _\mu `$ or $`\nu _\tau `$ would have an impact on primordial abundances only through a change in total energy density of these neutrinos and is equivalent to a change of $`N_\nu `$. However distortion of the spectrum of $`\nu _e`$ would have a stronger and non-monotonic influence on the abundances. If there is an increase of neutrinos in high energy tail of the spectrum then the frozen $`n/p`$-ratio would increase. Indeed an excess of $`\nu _e`$ in comparison with the equilibrium amount would lead to a more efficient destruction of neutrons in reaction (33), while the an excess of $`\overline{\nu }`$ would lead to more efficient production of neutrons in reaction (34). If spectral distortion is symmetric for particles and antiparticles then the second reaction would dominate because the number density of protons is 6-7 times larger than the number density of neutrons. It is worth noting that spectral distortion is not necessary charge symmetric as e.g. could be in the case of resonant oscillations between active and sterile neutrinos.

If spectrum of $`\nu _e`$ has an additional power at low energy then the $`n/p`$ ratio would decrease because the reaction (34), where neutrons are created, is suppressed at low energies due to threshold of 1.8 MeV.

If the spectrum is not distorted but the temperature of neutrinos is different from the temperature of photons then for a larger $`T_{\nu _e}`$ the $`n/p`$-ratio would be smaller because larger fraction of $`\nu _e`$ would shift the neutron freezing temperature, $`T_{np}`$, to a smaller value. Thus an increase of the energy density of $`\nu _e`$ has an opposite effect on BBN than an increase of the energy density of $`\nu _\mu `$ or $`\nu _\tau `$.

## 6 Neutrino oscillations in the early universe

### 6.1 Effects of medium

There are serious reasons to believe that the mass eigenstates of neutrinos $`\nu _j`$ ($`j=1,2,\mathrm{}`$) do not coincide with interaction eigenstates, $`\nu _a`$ ($`a=e,\mu ,\tau ,\mathrm{}`$). This mismatch leads to oscillation phenomenon. The interaction and mass eigenstates are expressed through each other by an unitary mixing matrix which in a simple case of two particle mixing (e.g. $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$) has the form:

$`\nu _e`$ $`=`$ $`\nu _1\mathrm{cos}\theta +\nu _2\mathrm{sin}\theta `$
$`\nu _\mu `$ $`=`$ $`\nu _1\mathrm{sin}\theta +\nu _2\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ (39)
If a certain neutrino flavor (interaction eigenstate) is produced in space point $`a`$ then the probability to observe such state in space point $`b`$ oscillates as $`\mathrm{cos}[(ab)\delta m^2/2p]`$ where $`\delta m^2=m_2^2m_1^2`$ is the mass difference squared of the mass eigenstates.

Oscillations in matter are modified by neutrino effective potential $`V_{eff}`$ which up to energy factor coincides with refraction index of neutrinos in medium. The Schroedinger equation for neutrino vector wave function in medium can be written as

$`i_t\mathrm{\Psi }=\left(_m+V_{eff}\right)\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (40)
where the matrix $`_m`$ is the free Hamiltonian which is diagonal in mass eigenstate basis, while effective potential, $`V_{eff}`$, is often (but not always, see below, sec. 6.3) diagonal in interaction eigenstate basis.

Diagonal entries of $`V_{eff}`$ for an active neutrino were calculated in ref. :

$`V_{eff}^{(aa)}=\pm C_1\eta ^{(a)}G_FT^3+C_2^a{\displaystyle \frac{G_F^2T^4E}{\alpha }}`$ (41)
where $`E`$ is the neutrino energy, $`T`$ is the plasma temperature, $`G_F`$ is the Fermi coupling constant, $`\alpha =1/137`$ is the fine structure constant, and the signs “$`\pm `$” refer to anti-neutrinos and neutrinos respectively According to ref.  the coefficients $`C_j`$ are: $`C_10.95`$, $`C_2^e0.61`$ and $`C_2^{\mu ,\tau }0.17`$ (for $`T<m_\mu `$). These values are true in the limit of thermal equilibrium, otherwise these coefficients are some integrals from the distribution functions over momenta. The charge asymmetry of plasma is described by the coefficients $`\eta ^{(a)}`$ which are equal to

$`\eta ^{(e)}=2\eta _{\nu _e}+\eta _{\nu _\mu }+\eta _{\nu _\tau }+\eta _e\eta _n/2(\mathrm{for}\nu _e),`$ (42)
$`\eta ^{(\mu )}=2\eta _{\nu _\mu }+\eta _{\nu _e}+\eta _{\nu _\tau }\eta _n/2(\mathrm{for}\nu _\mu ),`$ (43)
and $`\eta ^{(\tau )}`$ for $`\nu _\tau `$ is obtained from eq. (43) by the interchange $`\mu \tau `$. The individual charge asymmetries, $`\eta _X`$, are defined as the ratio of the difference between particle-antiparticle number densities to the number density of photons:

$`\eta _X=\left(N_XN_{\overline{X}}\right)/N_\gamma `$ (44)
The first term came from thermal averaging of the time component of the current with which neutrino interacts $`J_t`$. This operator is odd with respect to charge conjugation and has different signs for neutrinos and antineutrinos. The second term appears because of non-locality of neutrino interaction related to exchange of intermediate bosons.

The numerical values of these two terms in the effective potential as well as the energy difference, $`\delta E=\delta m^2/2E`$, which determines oscillation frequency in vacuum, are

$`N^{(a)}`$ $`=`$ $`C_2^{(a)}G_F^2T^4E/\alpha =5.5910^{20}C_2^{(a)}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{\mathrm{MeV}}}\right)^5\left({\displaystyle \frac{E}{3T}}\right)\mathrm{MeV}`$ (45)
$`A^{(a)}`$ $`=`$ $`C_1\eta ^{(a)}G_FT^3=1.16610^{21}C_1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^{(a)}}{10^{10}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{\mathrm{MeV}}}\right)^3\mathrm{MeV}`$ (46)
$`\delta E`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta m^2}{2E}}=510^{13}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta m^2}{\mathrm{eV}^2}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{MeV}}{E}}\right)\mathrm{MeV}`$ (47)
Description of oscillating neutrinos in the early universe in terms of wave function is not adequate because the effects of breaking of coherence by neutrino annihilation or non-forward scattering, as well as neutrino production are essential and one has to use density matrix formalism . Equation for the evolution of the density matrix has the form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\rho }{dt}}=[_1,\rho ]i\{_2,\rho \}`$ (48)
where $`_1`$ is the effective Hamiltonian calculated in the first order in $`G_F`$ (see eq. (40) and $`_2`$ is the imaginary part of the effective Hamiltonian in the second order in $`G_F`$. Square brackets mean commutator and curly ones mean anticommutator. The last term turns into the usual collision integral in non-oscillating case. In many problems this term is approximated as $`\gamma (\rho \rho _{eq})`$ where $`\gamma `$ is the effective strength of interactions and $`\rho _{eq}`$ is proportional to unit matrix with the coefficient $`f_{eq}`$, the latter being the equilibrium distribution function. Sometimes this approximation reasonably well describes realistic situation but in many practically interesting cases this is not so and more accurate form of the coherence breaking terms should be taken (see e.g. ref. ).

### 6.2 Impact of active-sterile oscillations on BBN

All three mentioned above effects of neutrino influence on BBN may be present in case of mixing of sterile and active neutrinos.

1. Production of $`\nu _s`$ by oscillations may be efficient enough to produce noticeable contribution into total cosmological energy density making $`N_\nu >3`$.
2. If MSW resonance transition is possible a large lepton asymmetry may be developed in the sector of active neutrinos and if it happens to be $`\nu _e`$-asymmetry it may result in a drastic change in primordial abundances of light elements.
3. Oscillations may distort energy spectrum of neutrinos because probability of transformation depends upon their energy.

We will discuss here mostly the first phenomenon because of continuing controversy in the literature (see refs. ). Discussion and references to effects of spectral distortion and asymmetry generation can be found in review .

Let us assume that there is mixing only between two neutrinos, one active and one sterile, and the MSW resonance condition is not realized (this is so if $`\nu _s`$ is heavier than its active partner, $`\delta m^2>0`$). The density matrix is $`2\times 2`$ and has 4 elements which satisfy the following kinetic equations:

$`\dot{\rho }_{ss}`$ $`=`$ $`s_2\delta EI`$ (49)
$`\dot{\rho }_{aa}`$ $`=`$ $`s_2\delta EI{\displaystyle }d\tau |A_{el}|^2[\rho _{aa}(p_1)f(p_2)\rho _(p_3)f(p_4)]`$ (50)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle }d\tau |A_{ann}|^2[\rho _{aa}(p_1)\overline{\rho }_(p_2)f(p_3)f(p_4)]`$
$`\dot{R}`$ $`=`$ $`WI(1/2)\mathrm{\Gamma }R`$ (51)
$`\dot{I}`$ $`=`$ $`WR(1/2)\mathrm{\Gamma }I+(1/2)s_2\delta E(\rho _{aa}\rho _{ss})`$ (52)
where $`R`$ and $`I`$ are real and imaginary parts of the non-diagonal components of the density matrix, $`\rho _{as}=R+iI`$, $`\delta E=\delta m^2/2E`$, $`s_2=\mathrm{sin}2\theta `$, $`c_2=\mathrm{cos}2\theta `$, $`W=c_2\delta E+V_{eff}`$ (no-resonance condition means that $`W0`$), and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the total interaction rate of neutrinos with all other particles. In Boltzmann approximation it is given by the expression (12) with $`D=80(1+g_L^2+g_R^2)`$. Fermi corrections are calculated in ref. . They diminish the results by 10-15%. Integration in eq. (50) is taken over the phase space of particles 2,3, and 4 that participate in the reaction $`1+23+4`$.

First we introduce new dimensionless variables, $`x`$ and $`y`$, as defined after eq. (11). After that the last two equations (51,52) can be solved analytically as:

$`\rho _{as}={\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^x}{\displaystyle \frac{dx_1}{H_1x_1}}s_2\delta E\left(\rho _{aa}\rho _{ss}\right)_1\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle _{x_1}^x}{\displaystyle \frac{dx_2}{H_2x_2}}\left(iW+\mathrm{\Gamma }/2\right)_2\right]`$ (53)
Here sub-indices 1 and 2 mean that the corresponding functions are taken at $`x_1`$ or at $`x_2`$.

One can estimate that the maximum production rate of sterile neutrinos takes place at the temperature

$`T_{prod}^{\nu _s}=(1015)(3/y)^{1/3}(\delta m^2/\mathrm{eV}^2)^{1/6}\mathrm{MeV}`$ (54)
The first number above is for mixing of $`\nu _s`$ with $`\nu _e`$, while the second one is for mixing with $`\nu _\mu `$ or $`\nu _\tau `$. Thus if the neutrino mass difference is not too small the production of sterile neutrinos is efficient when $`\mathrm{\Gamma }H`$. Hence the integrals in eq. (53) are exponentially dominated by upper limits and can be easily taken:

$`\rho _{as}=R+iI={\displaystyle \frac{s_2\delta E}{2Wi\mathrm{\Gamma }}}(\rho _{aa}\rho _{ss})`$ (55)
This is essentially the stationary point approximation which is valid if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is sufficiently large.

Substituting this result into eq. (49) we find

$`Hx_x\rho _{ss}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{4}}\left(\rho _{aa}\rho _{ss}\right){\displaystyle \frac{s_2^2}{\left(c_2^2+V_{eff}/\delta E\right)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2/4\delta E^2}}`$ (56)
If we neglect $`\rho _{ss}`$ in comparison with $`\rho _{aa}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^2`$ in comparison with $`W^2`$ then we obtain that the rate of production of sterile neutrinos is

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_s={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_a\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _m`$ (57)
where $`\theta _m`$ is the effective mixing angle in matter. Its definition is evident from comparison of eqs. (56) and (57). This result is twice smaller than the estimates used in earlier papers  and repeated in the recent review .

Correspondingly the limit on oscillations parameters becomes weaker:

$`(\delta m_{\nu _e\nu _s}^2/\mathrm{eV}^2)\mathrm{sin}^42\theta _{vac}^{\nu _e\nu _s}=3.1610^5(g_{}(T_{prod}^{\nu _s})/10.75)^3(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu )^2`$ (58)
$`(\delta m_{\nu _\mu \nu _s}^2/\mathrm{eV}^2)\mathrm{sin}^42\theta _{vac}^{\nu _\mu \nu _s}=1.7410^5(g_{}(T_{prod}^{\nu _s})/10.75)^3(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu )^2`$ (59)
If $`\mathrm{\Delta }N`$ is not very small, then a better approximation in the bounds above would be $`\mathrm{ln}^2(1\mathrm{\Delta }N)`$ instead of $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N)^2`$.

Possibly these bounds would be even weaker if we take into account that oscillations conserve total number density of neutrinos and the latter can be changed only by the neutrino annihilation into $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs which froze at rather high temperature (see discussion after eq. (12).

In the resonance case a striking effect of a huge rise of lepton asymmetry of active neutrinos may take place  leading to asymmetry close to 1. Due to small fluctuations of baryon asymmetry this huge lepton asymmetry may strongly fluctuate at cosmologically large scales . After neutrino decoupling these inhomogeneities would give rise to significant fluxes of neutrinos. The latter in turn could create local electric currents with non-zero vorticity which may be sources of seed magnetic fields . Turbulent eddies generated by such flows could also generate gravitational waves potentially observable in forthcoming LISA mission .

### 6.3 Oscillations between active neutrinos

Normally active neutrinos are in thermal equilibrium even at low temperatures and oscillations between them do not lead to any change in their distribution. If however cosmological lepton asymmetry is non-zero and different for different neutrino flavors then the oscillations may change it and lead to equality of all asymmetries. Naively one would expect that in the case of large asymmetry the mixing angle in matter is very strongly suppressed and neutrino flavor transformations are absent. This is not the case however because of a large non-diagonal matrix elements of the effective potential. This was first noticed in ref.  and discussed in detail in series of papers . A clear description these phenomena was presented recently in the paper .

The kinetic equations used in the previous section can be easily modified to apply to this case. Let us consider for definiteness oscillations between $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$. One has to take into account the self-interaction processes $`\nu _e\nu _\mu \nu _e\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _e\overline{\nu }_e\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu `$. The refraction index is determined by the forward scattering amplitude and since $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$ are considered to be different states of the same particle one has to include both processes when there is a $`\nu _e`$ with momentum $`p_1`$ in initial state and a $`\nu _e`$ or $`\nu _\mu `$ with the same momentum in the final state. The processes of forward transformation $`\nu _e\nu _\mu `$ give non-diagonal contributions to refraction index. Such transformations always exist, even among non-oscillating particles, but only in the case of non-vanishing mixing the non-diagonal terms in the effective potential become observable.

Now effective Hamiltonian has the form:

$`H_{int}^{(e,\mu )}=\delta E\left(\begin{array}{cc}h_{ee}& h_{e\mu }\\ h_{\mu e}& h_{\mu \mu }\end{array}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\delta E}{2}}\left(h_0+\sigma 𝐡\right)`$ (62)
where $`\delta E=\delta m^2/2E`$ and $`\sigma `$ are Pauli matrices. The elements of the Hamiltonian matrix (62) are expressed through the integrals over momenta of the distribution functions of other leptons in the plasma and, in particular, of the elements of the density matrix of oscillating neutrinos themselves. The structure of these terms is essentially the same as those discussed above for mixing between active and scalar neutrinos, see eq. (41). The contribution of self-interaction of neutrinos and antineutrinos also contains two terms. One originates from non-locality of weak interactions and is symmetric with respect to charge conjugation:

$`𝐡_+={\displaystyle \frac{V_{sym}}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑yy^3\left(𝐏+\overline{𝐏}\right)}.`$ (63)
The second is proportional to the charge asymmetry in the plasma and equals

$`𝐡_{}={\displaystyle \frac{V_{asym}}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑yy^2\left(𝐏\overline{𝐏}\right)}`$ (64)
An essential feature, specific for oscillations between active neutrinos, is the presence of non-diagonal terms in the Hamiltonian (or in refraction index). In the case of large lepton asymmetry in the sector of oscillating neutrinos, the asymmetric terms in the Hamiltonian strongly dominate and, as a result, the suppression of mixing angle in the medium, found for $`(\nu _a\nu _s)`$-oscillations, disappears. To be more precise initially the non-diagonal matrix elements are zero but they quickly rise, if the initial asymmetry is not too high, and soon become very large.

A large contribution of lepton asymmetry into effective potential permits to solve kinetic equations for density matrix analytically and find :

$`h_z^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}h_z{\displaystyle d^3ye^y\frac{s_2^2\gamma }{\gamma ^2+c_2^2}}`$ (65)
where $`\gamma =\mathrm{\Gamma }/\delta E`$ and brackets in the denominator mean averaging over neutrino spectrum.

The solution of this equation is straightforward. It shows that oscillations are not suppressed by matter effects in the presence of large lepton asymmetry. A detailed numerical investigation of oscillations between three active neutrinos in the early universe in presence of a large lepton asymmetry was carried out in the paper . Similar investigation both analytical and numerical was also performed in the papers .

An analysis of the impact of oscillating neutrinos on BBN was performed for the values of oscillation parameters favored by the solar and atmospheric neutrino anomalies . For the large mixing angle (LMA) solution flavor equilibrium is established in the early universe and all chemical potentials $`\xi _{e,\mu ,\tau }`$ acquire equal values. The results of the calculations for this case are presented in fig. 6.

Since for these values of the parameters, asymmetries in muonic and tauonic sectors are efficiently transformed into electronic asymmetry, the BBN bounds on chemical potentials are quite strong,

$`|\xi _a|<0.07`$ (66)
for any flavor $`a=e,\mu ,\tau `$.

This result does not destroy the mechanisms of generation of seed magnetic fields and gravitational waves discussed at the end of sec. 6.2. Indeed, the maximum value of chemical potential that could be generated by oscillations is 0.6 and may be factor 2-3 smaller depending on the mixing parameters. If shared between three neutrino species these lower values would not contradict the bound (66). Moreover, for a large region of parameter space the essential rise of asymmetry takes place below neutron-proton freezing temperature and does not produce a strong effect on BBN (see e.g. numerical  or analytical  calculations).

For the LOW mixing angle solution the transformation of muon or tauon asymmetries into electronic one is not so efficient. The transformation started at $`T<1`$ MeV below interesting range for BBN. The results of calculations are presented in fig. 7.

The results presented in these figures are valid for vanishing mixing angle $`\theta _{13}`$ (in the standard parameterization of the $`3\times 3`$-mixing matrix. An analysis of different non-zero values of $`\theta _{13}`$ can be found in the paper .

Acknowledgment
I am grateful to Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics for hospitality during period when the final version of these lectures was prepared. I also thank Daniela Kirilova for helpful comments.


text:
# Direct CP Violation in 𝐵→ϕ𝐾_𝑠 and New Physics

## Abstract

In the presence of large New Physics contributions to loop-induced $`bs`$ transitions, sizable direct CP violation in $`B\varphi K`$ decays is expected on general grounds. We compute explicitly CP-violating effects using QCD factorization and find that, even in the restricted case in which New Physics has the same penguin structure as the Standard Model, the rate asymmetry can be of order one. We briefly discuss a more general scenario and comment on the inclusion of power-suppressed corrections to factorization.

With the advent of $`B`$ factories, the measurement of CP asymmetries in non-leptonic $`B`$ decays has emerged as a very powerful probe of New Physics (NP) beyond the Standard Model (SM). It was pointed out a few years ago that the comparison of time-dependent CP asymmetries in different decay channels measuring the same weak phase in the SM could provide evidence of NP in $`B`$ decay amplitudes Grossman:1996ke . In particular, $`a_{CP}(BJ/\mathrm{\Psi }K_s)`$ and $`a_{CP}(B\varphi K_s)`$ both measure $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ with negligible hadronic uncertainties in the SM Grossman:1997gr . However, $`B\varphi K_s`$, being a pure penguin process, is expected to be much more sensitive to NP than the tree-level dominated $`BJ/\mathrm{\Psi }K_s`$ decay. In many explicit examples of NP, it has been shown that sizable differences in these two asymmetries can be generated Ciuchini:1997zp Datta:2002nr . The first measurements of $`a_{CP}(B\varphi K_s)`$ by the BaBar and Belle collaborations display a $`2.7\sigma `$ deviation from the observed value of $`a_{CP}(BJ/\mathrm{\Psi }K_s)`$ Aubert:2002nx ; Abe:2002bx , leaving open the possibility of a NP effect in $`B\varphi K_s`$ nir:ichep .

In this letter, we focus on the possibility of having direct CP violation in $`B\varphi K_s`$ in the presence of generic NP contributions to the $`bs\overline{s}s`$ transition at the loop level. For simplicity, we first illustrate our argument using QCD factorization in the limit $`m_b\mathrm{}`$ Beneke:1999br , neglecting electroweak corrections. Then, we briefly discuss possible effects of power-suppressed terms.

We write the decay amplitude as

$`𝒜(B\varphi K_s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}}F_0^{BK}f_\varphi {\displaystyle \underset{i=3}{\overset{5}{}}}[\lambda _u\stackrel{~}{a}_i^u+\lambda _c\stackrel{~}{a}_i^c+`$ (1)
$`\lambda _t(\stackrel{~}{a}_i^t+\stackrel{~}{a}_i^{\mathrm{NP}})],`$
where $`\lambda _q=V_{qb}^{}V_{qs}`$, $`F_0^{BK}`$ is the semileptonic $`BK`$ form factor evaluated at the $`\varphi `$ mass and $`f_\varphi `$ is the $`\varphi `$ decay constant. The coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{a}_i^q`$ are defined in terms of the usual $`a_{i,\mathrm{I}}^q`$ and $`a_{i,\mathrm{II}}^q`$, introduced in QCD factorization Yang:2000xn ; Beneke:2001ev , as follows:

$`\stackrel{~}{a}_{(3,5)}^u=0,\stackrel{~}{a}_{(3,5)}^c=0,\stackrel{~}{a}_{(3,5)}^t=a_{(3,5),\mathrm{I}}+a_{(3,5),\mathrm{II}},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{a}_4^{(u,c)}=a_{4,\mathrm{I}}^{(u,c)}(C_{3,\mathrm{},6}0),`$
$`\stackrel{~}{a}_4^t=a_{4,\mathrm{I}}^u(C_{1,2}0)+a_{4,\mathrm{II}}.`$ (2)
The notation $`a_{4,\mathrm{I}}^u(C_{1,2}0)`$ means that one has to take the expression for $`a_{4,\mathrm{I}}^u`$ given in ref. Beneke:2001ev  neglecting terms proportional to $`C_1`$ and $`C_2`$. Furthermore, the coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{a}_i^{\mathrm{NP}}`$ in eq. (1) account for the NP contributions and are defined as $`\stackrel{~}{a}_i^{\mathrm{NP}}=\stackrel{~}{a}_i^t(C_{3,\mathrm{},6}C_{3,\mathrm{},6}^{\mathrm{NP}}/\lambda _t)`$. For discussing NP effects, it is useful to distinguish the different $`\lambda _q`$ contributions, without using the unitarity of the CKM matrix. In fact, terms proportional to $`\lambda _u`$ and $`\lambda _c`$ are not modified by NP loop effects. Since $`\lambda _u`$ is doubly Cabibbo suppressed with respect to $`\lambda _{c,t}`$, we neglect it in the following discussion.

In Table 1, we report the values of the coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{a}_i^q`$. It is remarkable that $`\stackrel{~}{a}_4^c`$ has comparable real and imaginary parts and, correspondingly, a large strong phase even in the infinite mass limit. However, $`a_4^c=\stackrel{~}{a}_4^c\stackrel{~}{a}_4^t`$, which enters the SM decay amplitude, has a smaller strong phase, due to the constructive (destructive) interference in the real (imaginary) parts. In other words, the strong phase of the SM amplitude is accidentally smaller than its natural value within QCD factorization. Notice, in addition, that $`|\stackrel{~}{a}_4^c|`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{a}_4^t|`$ are comparable in size.

Assuming that NP effects affect $`C_{3,\mathrm{},6}`$, we can consider two different scenarios: i) a universal penguin-like contribution parametrized as $`C_{3,\mathrm{},6}^{\mathrm{NP}}=\lambda _tr^{\mathrm{NP}}e^{i\varphi ^{\mathrm{NP}}}C_{3,\mathrm{},6}`$; ii) a general NP contribution affecting $`C_{3,\mathrm{},6}`$ in a non universal way. This is the case, for example, of general $`R_P`$-conserving SUSY models where, in addition to penguins, there is also a box contribution Gabbiani:1996hi .

It is easy to see that, in both scenarios, there is more than one contribution to the amplitude carrying different strong and weak phases. Since the strong phases are not negligible, one expects sizable direct CP violation if the NP contribution is large enough. Indeed, in the first scenario, we have

$`𝒜(B\varphi K_s)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}}F_0^{BK}f_\varphi {\displaystyle \underset{i=3}{\overset{5}{}}}[\lambda _c\stackrel{~}{a}_i^c+`$ (3)
$`\lambda _t(1+r^{\mathrm{NP}}e^{i\varphi ^{\mathrm{NP}}})\stackrel{~}{a}_i^t].`$
Using the values in Table 1, we get

$`𝒜(B\varphi K_s)`$ $``$ $`\lambda _c(1.4+1.1i)+`$ (4)
$`\lambda _t\left(1+r^{\mathrm{NP}}e^{i\varphi ^{\mathrm{NP}}}\right)(1.9+0.3i).`$
It is apparent that, for $`r^{\mathrm{NP}}`$ of $`𝒪(1)`$, a large rate asymmetry is generated, namely $`|\overline{𝒜}/𝒜||𝒜(\overline{B}^0\varphi K_s)|/|𝒜(B^0\varphi K_s)|1`$ (see fig. 1). Correspondingly, the full expression for the time-dependent asymmetry, including the $`\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }M_Bt`$ term, should be used and hadronic uncertainties are expected in the extraction of the weak phases from the data.

In the more general scenario ii), there are even more terms in the amplitude with different strong and weak phases. In this case, $`a_i^{\mathrm{NP}}`$ contain an admixture of strong and weak phases. Therefore, it is no longer useful to use the notation of eq. (1). As an example, we give the coefficients $`C_{\varphi K}`$ and $`S_{\varphi K}`$ of the time-dependent CP asymmetry computed in a SUSY model with $`𝒪(1)`$ $`\stackrel{~}{s}\stackrel{~}{b}`$ mixing, for an average squark and gluino mass of 250 GeV (see refs. Silvestrini:ichep ; Ciuchini:fut  for a detailed analysis). For central values of the parameters in QCD factorization and the extreme value $`(\delta _{23}^d)_{LL}=e^{3\pi i/2}`$ (for the definition, see ref. Gabbiani:1996hi ), we get

$$C_{\varphi K}=0.24,S_{\varphi K}=0.13.$$
(5)
To conclude our discussion, we notice that, as suggested by $`BK\pi `$ decays, large corrections to QCD factorization in the infinite $`b`$-mass limit are expected in penguin-dominated $`bs`$ decays Ciuchini:2001gv . However, the inclusion of power corrections following any of the available approaches Beneke:2001ev Ciuchini:2001gv Ciuchini:2002  can only strengthen our conclusion, since in general subleading terms produce additional strong phases (barring accidental cancellations). Furthermore, given the dependence of hadronic matrix elements on the final state, no simple relation among the time-dependent CP asymmetries in $`B\varphi K_s`$, $`B\eta ^{}K_s`$, and other penguin-dominated $`bs`$ transitions can be established. Therefore, it is quite possible that, in the presence of NP, $`a_{CP}(B\varphi K_s)a_{CP}(B\eta ^{}K_s)`$, contrary to what very recently suggested in ref. nir:ichep . If the present $`2.7\sigma `$ discrepancy between $`S_{J/\mathrm{\Psi }K}`$ and $`S_{\varphi K}`$ will be confirmed, pointing to a large NP contribution in the $`B\varphi K_s`$ decay amplitude, a non-vanishing $`C_{\varphi K}`$ is expected on general grounds, as well as CP violation in the decay $`B^+\varphi K^+`$.

We thank F. Zwirner for carefully reading the manuscript.


text:
# Negative heat capacities and first order phase transitions in nuclei

## Abstract

Anomalous negative heat capacities have been claimed as indicators of first order phase transitions in finite systems in general, and for nuclear systems in particular. A thermodynamic approach allowing for all $`Q`$ value terms is used to evaluate heat capacities in finite van der Waals fluids and finite lattice systems in the coexistence region. Fictitious large effects and negative heat capacities are observed in lattice systems when periodic boundary conditions are introduced. Small anomalous effects are predicted for small drops and for finite lattice systems. A straightforward application of the analysis to nuclei shows that negative heat capacities cannot be observed for $`A>60`$.

The quest for discovery of the liquid to vapor phase transition in nuclei has progressed along two lines. On one hand, the cluster abundance has been studied as a function of mass and temperature and the phase diagram has been generated  in terms of Fisher’s theory of clusterization . On the other, caloric curves have been analyzed to look for plateaus and breaks possibly associated with the phase transition ; and fluctuations have been translated into heat capacities in the hope of discovering negative values which are widely considered to be indicators of phase coexistence in small systems .

Regarding experimental caloric curves, it has been pointed out that their interpretation hinges upon an unknown pressure-volume relationship in the experiment, e.g. constant pressure or constant volume .

Regarding the heat capacities, negative values are typically obtained in lattice gas, Ising, or Potts model calculations for finite systems . The origin of these negative values is generically attributed to the generation of surface with its attendant energy cost, which is significant in small systems and which disappears in the thermodynamic limit. However, with numerical calculations, it is not clear how this effect actually comes about, and if and how it may apply to actual systems like nuclei. The issue is all the more interesting since claims of negative heat capacities have been made for nuclear systems .

In this paper we are going to investigate the subject of caloric curves and heat capacities of finite systems in the coexistence region and the underlying role of varying potential energies (“ground states”) with system size on the basis of simple and very general thermodynamical concepts, in the hope of obtaining solid and unambiguous conclusions on these matters.

Our study applies to leptodermous (thin skinned) van der Waals-like fluids and to models such as Ising, Potts, and lattice gas, which are capable of reproducing their general features. We shall show that:

1. drops of leptodermous systems can indeed show negative heat capacities as a slight effect if allowed to evaporate at constant pressure;
2. finite lattice systems can also present negative heat capacities as a slight effect if open boundary conditions are applied;
3. finite lattices systems present negative heat capacities as a much greater effect if periodic boundary conditions are applied, the main signal being associated with the latter, very artificial conditions;
4. nuclei cannot show negative heat capacities above $`A60`$, while negative heat capacities are possible for $`A`$ values below $`60`$.

Let us consider a macroscopic drop of a van der Waals fluid with $`A`$ constituents in equilibrium with its vapor. The vapor pressure $`p`$ at temperature $`T`$ is given by the Clapeyron equation

$$\frac{dp}{dT}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{T\mathrm{\Delta }V_m}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ is the molar vaporization enthalpy and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_m`$ is the molar change in volume. The Clapeyron equation gives a direct connection between what we might call the “ground state” properties of the system and the saturation pressure along the coexistence line. In fact, we can write

$$\mathrm{\Delta }H_m=\mathrm{\Delta }E_m+P\mathrm{\Delta }V_m\mathrm{\Delta }E_m+T$$
(2)
and for $`T\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_ma_v`$ can be identified approximately with the liquid-drop volume coefficient in the absence of other terms like surface and Coulomb, etc. Assuming $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_mV_m^{\text{vapor}}`$, that the vapor is an ideal gas and that $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ is constant with temperature, Eq. (1) can be integrated to give

$$pp_o\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{T}\right).$$
(3)
Equation (3) represents the $`p`$-$`T`$ univariant line in the phase diagram of the system if $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ is assigned its bulk value $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0`$. It was observed long ago that for a drop of finite size $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ must be corrected for the surface energy of the drop

$`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0+\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^s=\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0\gamma S_m`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0a_s{\displaystyle \frac{A^{2/3}}{A}}=\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0{\displaystyle \frac{K}{r}}`$ (5)
where $`\gamma `$ is the surface tension, $`S_m`$ is the molar surface of the drop of radius $`r`$, $`a_s`$ is the surface energy coefficient and $`K`$ is a geometrical constant. Substitution in Eq. (3) leads to

$`p`$ $`=`$ $`p_0\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0}{T}}+{\displaystyle \frac{a_s}{A^{1/3}T}}\right)`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`p_{\text{bulk}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{a_s}{A^{1/3}T}}\right)=p_{\text{bulk}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{K}{rT}}\right).`$ (7)
At constant temperature the vapor pressure increases with decreasing size of the drop. In other words, each drop of constant radius $`r`$ has its own $`r`$-dependent coexistence line with the vapor as shown in Fig. 1.

Let us now consider the case of isobaric evaporation of a drop starting from a drop with $`A_0`$ constituents and evaporating into a drop with $`A<A_0`$ constituents. Let us now define the drop size parameter

$$y=\frac{A_0A}{A_0}.$$
(8)
At constant pressure

$$p_0\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0}{T}\right)=p_0\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)}{T_y}\right).$$
(9)
Remembering that in most liquids $`\left|a_v\right|\left|a_s\right|`$ and that in the lattice gas $`\left|a_v\right|=\left|a_s\right|`$, we have

$$\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)a_v\left(1\frac{1}{A_0^{1/3}(1y)^{1/3}}\right)$$
(10)
from which follows

$$\frac{T_y}{T_{\mathrm{}}}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)}{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0}1\frac{1}{A^{1/3}}1\frac{1}{A_0^{1/3}(1y)^{1/3}}.$$
(11)
Thus, a slight decrease in temperature is predicted as the drop evaporates isobarically, thus leading to a negative isobaric heat capacity in the coexistence region as illustrated in Fig. 2. In this figure, the abscissa is trivially related to $`\mathrm{\Delta }H`$, the heat absorbed by the evaporating drop at constant pressure, by the relationship

$$\mathrm{\Delta }H=A_0_0^y𝑑y\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)=A_0y\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}.$$
(12)
The same decrease can be more visually appreciated from Fig. (1). As the drop is evaporating at constant pressure, the drop moves from one coexistence curve to another according to its decrease in radius, and thus to progressively lower temperatures. This slight effect is due not to an increase in surface as the drop evaporates, since the drop surface of course diminishes as $`A^{2/3}`$, but to the slight increase of molar surface which does increase as $`A^{1/3}`$ as shown in Fig. 3. Also, the formation of bubbles in the body of the drop is thermodynamically disfavored by the factor $`f=\mathrm{exp}(\gamma \mathrm{\Delta }S/T)`$ where $`\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ is the surface of the bubble.

It is worth pointing out that the smallness of the effect ($`4`$% decrease in $`T`$ as a droplet of $`A200`$ evaporates all the way to $`A100`$), is needlessly magnified by the widely practiced artful translation of the caloric curve into heat capacity, which jumps from $`+\mathrm{}`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$ as the slope of the caloric curve changes from constant to a slightly negative value.

It might be argued that cluster formation may be responsible for negative heat capacities. In physical fluids as well as in the Ising model the “mean” molecular weight of the equilibrium vapor remains very close to that of the monomer, as confirmed by the adherence of the vapor pressure vs. temperature to the Clapeyron-Clausius formula with constant $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ . Furthermore, if such an effect existed it would operate already for the infinite systems, which, patently, it does not.

Let us now move to the amply studied cases of lattice gas, Ising, and Potts models. Here as above, the study of the evolution of the ground state properties can be directly translated into the liquid-vapor coexistence properties. We consider first an evaporating finite system in three dimensions of size $`A_0=L^3`$, with open boundary conditions. This case is essentially identical to the case of a drop discussed above (see Fig. 2).

For maximal density at $`T=0`$ (the ground state) $`y=0`$ and the entire cubic lattice is filled. For decreasing densities, always at $`T=0`$ a single cluster of minimum surface is present, which evolves from a cube to a sphere. The associated change in surface is shown in Fig. (3).

Since a cube has only a slightly larger surface than a sphere of the same volume by a factor of $`6/\left(\left(4\pi \right)^{1/3}3^{2/3}\right)`$ the resulting decrease of $`T_y`$ at $`y=1`$ is nearly exactly what a sphere of the same volume would experience in going from $`y=0`$ to $`y=1/2`$ ($`A_0200`$). Thus the caloric curve from $`y=0`$ to $`y=1/2`$ is essentially flat like in the infinite system, and the heat capacity is trivially infinite.

So, where are the large effects reported in so many papers ? We shall see below the effect created by the introduction of periodic boundary conditions.

The introduction of periodic boundary conditions rids the system of “dangling bonds,” as it were, by repeating a cubic lattice of side $`L`$ periodically along the three coordinates. These conditions, originally introduced to mimic the infinite system, lead here to peculiar consequences.

At $`y=0`$, the lattice is filled with particles so that $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(0)=\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0`$ characteristic of the infinite system. As $`y`$ increases at fixed lattice size, a bubble develops in the cube and surface is rapidly created. This is shown in Fig. (3). The bubble develops since the periodic boundary conditions prevent ’as it were’ evaporation from the surface. The bubble grows with increasing $`y`$ until it touches the sides of the lattice. This occurs for $`y1/2`$. At nearly $`y=1/2`$ and beyond, the “stable” configuration is a drop that eventually vanishes at $`y=1`$. The change in surface associated with the range $`0y1`$ as well as the molar surface are shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 3.

The evaporation enthalpy thus becomes

$$\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)a_v\left(1\frac{y^{2/3}}{A_0^{1/3}\left(1y\right)}\right)$$
(13)
from $`y=0`$ to $`y=1/2`$, and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)a_v\left(1\frac{1}{A_0^{1/3}\left(1y\right)^{1/3}}\right)$$
(14)
from $`y=1/2`$ to $`y=1`$.

As a consequence, for periodic boundary conditions

$$\frac{T_y}{T_{\mathrm{}}}1\frac{y^{2/3}}{A_0^{1/3}\left(1y\right)}$$
(15)
from $`y=0`$ to $`y=1/2`$, while from $`y=1/2`$ to $`y=1`$ Eq. (11) holds.

The results contained in equations (11) and (15) are very general and convenient. They bypass the clumsy numerical calculations for individual systems, and require, for any case, just the knowledge of the geometry and of the surface energy coefficient.

The dramatic effect of periodic boundary conditions can now be seen in Fig. 4. The temperature decreases substantially with increasing $`y`$, due to the fact that the molar enthalpy at $`y=0`$ assumes its bulk value $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m^0`$ and must meet the previous case of open boundary conditions for $`y=1/2`$. This may well explain the calculated negative heat capacities reported in literature, as an artifact due to the unnatural choice of boundary conditions. The conclusion of this exercise is the following: if $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(y)`$ decreases with $`y`$ (with decreasing drop size), for any reason, we expect negative heat capacities. Alternatively we expect the normal infinite heat capacities if $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m=`$ constant or positive heat capacities if $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ increases with $`y`$.

With the lessons learned above we can evaluate the heat capacities for nuclei. It is apparent from the above arguments that the key quantity is $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ and its dependence on the drop size, irrespective of the physical causes that determine its magnitude and dependence. In the case of nuclei the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ is determined not only by the volume and surface, but also by all the other terms in the liquid drop model, such as the Coulomb and symmetry energy all of which contribute to the mean binding energy per nucleon. Consequently one can immediately infer that when the binding energy per nucleon decreases with $`A`$, the heat capacity should be positive, and vice-versa. Thus, since the maximum binding energy per nucleon occurs at $`A60`$, negative heat capacities should be possible only for $`A<60`$. Let us proceed more precisely. We can rely again on the Clapeyron equations to calculate the heat capacity as follows

$$C_p=\frac{dH}{dT}|_p=\frac{dH}{dA}|_p\frac{dA}{dT}|_p=\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(A)\frac{dA}{dT}|_p$$
(16)
but

$$\frac{dT}{dA}|_p=\frac{dp}{dA}|_T\frac{dT}{dp}|_p.$$
(17)
From the integrated form of the Clapeyron equation we have

$$\frac{dp}{dA}|_p=\frac{1}{T}\frac{d\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{dA}p$$
(18)
so

$$\frac{dT}{dA}|_T=\frac{1}{T}\frac{d\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{dA}p\frac{TV_m}{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}=\frac{T}{\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}\frac{d\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{dA}.$$
(19)
Finally

$$C_p=\frac{\frac{\left(\mathrm{\Delta }H_m(A)\right)^2}{T}}{\frac{d\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{dA}}.$$
(20)
The derivative in the denominator can be evaluated approximately from the dependence on the binding energy per nucleon $`B`$ upon the mass number

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Delta }H_m}{dA}=\frac{dB}{dA}.$$
(21)
The liquid drop model allows us to estimate such a derivative. Without the Coulomb term, of course, we recover the results presented above for a drop: the binding energy increases with increasing $`A`$ and tends asymptotically to the value $`a_v15`$MeV. Thus negative heat capacities should be expected and the caloric curves should look like that shown in Fig. 2. The Coulomb and symmetry terms, however, become very important at large values of $`A`$, say, along the line of $`\beta `$-stability. From Fig. 5 it is apparent that the binding energy decreases with $`A`$ for $`A>60`$. Consequently in all this region of $`A`$, positive specific heats should be expected. Only for $`A<60`$, negative specific heats are predicted.

Despite the assumption of a temperature independent $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ we expect these results to hold over a very broad range of temperatures. On one hand a monotonic change of $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ with $`T`$ should not alter the result; on the other hand it is known that for van der Waals fluids their vapor pressure $`p=p(T)`$ is well defined up to the critical point by a constant $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ . Furthermore the appearance of clusters has minimal influence on $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_m`$ and therefore on our results, because the vapor concentration is dominated by monomers .

This straightforward result based on elementary thermodynamics and ground state binding energies raises serious questions as to the meaning of the negative heat capacities that have been claimed for large nuclear systems.

In conclusion, we have shown that:

1. it is possible to generate caloric curves and heat capacities in the coexistence region from the knowledge of the molar heat of vaporization, which must include all $`Q`$-value terms;
2. simple drops and Ising, Potts models with open boundary conditions show minimal anomalies, while periodic boundary conditions introduce strong anomalies as artifacts;
3. nuclei with $`A>60`$ should present no anomalous negative heat capacities while this is possible for $`A60`$.

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Physics Division of the US Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.