The triple-alpha reaction and the A=8 gap in BBN and Population III stars
Résumé
We investigated the effect of a variation of fundamental constants on primordial element production in Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and primordial stellar evolution. We focused on the effect of a possible change in the nucleon-nucleon interaction on nuclear reaction rates involving A = 8 and 5 unstable nuclei. While the triple-alpha process 4He(alpha alpha ,gamma )12C is normally not effective in BBN, its rate is very sensitive to the position of the ''Hoyle state" and could in principle be drastically affected if 8Be were stable during BBN.