Speaker
Description
Light elements were produced in the first few minutes of the Universe through a sequence of nuclear reactions known as Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). Among the light elements produced during BBN, deuterium is an excellent indicator of cosmological parameters because its abundance is highly sensitive to the primordial baryon density. Although astronomical observations of primordial deuterium abundance have reached percent accuracy, theoretical predictions based on BBN were hampered by large uncertainties on the cross-section of the deuterium burning D(p,$\gamma$)$^3$He reaction, before the LUNA measurement. We will report the recent LUNA results on the D(p,$\gamma$)$^3$He reaction recently published in Nature (Nature 587 (2020) 210-213). In addition, new results on the measurement of the angular distribution with an innovative technique will also be shown. To further improve the theoretical predictions on the primordial deuterium abundance, it is now important to perform a new and precise measurement of the D(d,n)3He and D(d,p)3H reactions. Future prospects to solve this issue will also be presented.
