BBN bounds on active–sterile neutrino mixing

Abstract

Nucleosynthesis restrictions on mixing of active neutrinos with possible sterile ones are obtained with the account of experimentally determined mixing between all active neutrinos. The earlier derived bounds, valid in the absence of active–active mixing, are reanalyzed and significant difference is found in the resonance case. The results are obtained both analytically and numerically by solution of complete system of integro-differential kinetic equations. A good agreement between analytical and numerical approaches is demonstrated. A role of possibly large cosmological lepton asymmetry is discussed.