The Main Path to C, N, O Elements in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

The production of C, N, O elements in a standard big bang nucleosynthesis scenario is investigated. Using the up-to-date data of nuclear reactions in BBN, in particular the ⁸Li (n,γ) ⁹Li which has been measured in China Institute of Atomic Energy, a full nucleosynthesis network calculation of BBN is carried out. Our calculation results show that the abundance of ¹²C is increased for an order of magnitude after addition of the reaction chain ⁸Li(n,γ) ⁹Li(α,n) ¹²B(β) ¹²C, which was neglected in previous studies. We find that this sequence provides the main channel to convert the light elements into C, N, O in standard BBN.